Surprise Party

Last night was my Dad's surprise 60th birthday party.  Our family got there early to help out.  Guess what......Dad was already there!!  He had come home early from a trip and found Mom making lasagna.  "Oh!  Is that for me??"  Then, looking around the room, "Wow, there's a lot of food in here.  What's going on?"  He was truly surprised.  :)

The lasagna was excellent as always, and my brother and his wife brought fresh Porutguese rolls...they were incredible!  Mom also made a Rachael Ray pasta dish that she called "Chicken Riggies."  It was peppers, onions, tomato, spice, chicken, and of course, rigatoni.  I had a big ol' plate of those and was sure to bring home leftovers!  There was also an awesome dessert buffet with carrot cake whoopie pies, apple crisp, brownies and much more.  We contributed by making a Warm Pumpkin Pudding Cake, and a layered taco dip.  The dip, as always, went really fast!  The dessert was a really easy cake to make, and it makes your house smell so incredible, the cake almost didn't make it to the party!

One of the surprises of the evening was how much Will pigged out!  Cheese, crackers, banana, Portuguese roll, three mini-cupcakes, a little vanilla ice cream and.....black olives.  Yes....very surprising!  Kim and I made up the salad and I put the black olives in a little dish on the side.  My mother, who adores black olives, asked why they weren't in the salad.  I told her it was because not everyone likes them, and this way people can add them if they like them.  Black olives are on the short list of things I'm not crazy about.  Actually, I'm not a fan of olives, period.  If they're sliced over a pizza, I'll just perservere instead of taking them off.  Anyway, Will grabbed a couple out of the bowl and stuffed them into his mouth.  He made a bitter face and I stuck out my napkin and told him that it was ok to spit them out.  His answer??  "NO, Mommy, I love them!"  Case closed.  I find that he's very adventurous at parties, and luckily, we have a lot of celebrations to attend!

All in all, it was a very successful party.  Happy 60th, Dad!