Photos :: Ivan's Birthday

This past weekend I threw a surprise party for Ivan's 30th birthday. Ok, hold on...let me correct myself. I tried to throw a surprise party but found out that I absolutely cannot keep a secret from Ivan and I ruined the surprise a few times but still ended up throwing a fun party for Ivan even though it was not the least bit surprising. There, that's better.

Almost all of the delicious food was made my Ivan's mom and her husband who is a chef. Everything was absolutely delicious and it was so nice that I was able to focus on desserts without having to worry about dinner-ish foods. Thank you guys!

Even though the party was no longer a surprise, we still went forward with the plan of getting Ivan out of the house (thank you Ryan & Kyle) before the party so that I could get the house set up and decorated. I had the help of my mom and a few friends and although I like to think that I can do everything myself it was really nice to have some extra hands. 

I spent all of Friday at my mom's baking some yummy treats for the party. You wouldn't think it would take all day to bake 3 dozen cupcakes and a batch of boston cream donuts but holy smokes those donuts take a long time! Ivan has been asking me to bake him these vegan bostom cream donuts for I don't even know how long so I finally decided to do it for his party. They were so worth the time and I can't wait for an excuse to make them again. As excited as I was about the donuts, people seemed more into the cupcakes because I am a super pro cupcake baker. Actually I have just been lucky enough to find great vanilla and chocolate cupcake recipes. Oh, and I make good icing. That part is all me.

Now, I'm going to risk sounding like a jerk to tell you that I made so many signs for this party so that I wouldn't have to repeat myself 100 times to people asking me the same questions. Hosting parties stresses me out a ton and people asking me a lot of questions just adds to that stress. Let me tell you that those signs were very helpful and informative and I did not get asked many questions. Let me also tell you that there were more signs than just these ones. Yeah, I'm crazy, what are you going to do about it?

Most of the party took place outside even though it was super humid. I hid inside most of the time because I couldn't stand the humidity but I thought I would throw in this photo of the shed for Ryan's mom Kelly. She sent a special message with Ryan to tell me that she likes our shed. So this one is for you Kelly!

Ivan had a great time at his party and I am really happy that so many of our friends and family could join us. As much as parties stress me out I love when people have a good time together.

Are you able to pull off surprise parties or are you a huge blabbermouth like I am?

♥elycia