Pat's Surprise 30th Birthday Party

Pat's 30th Birthday was Oct. 1st, 2011. I decided to throw him a big surprise bash!

Guests arrived early, so we had welcome drinks for them!

While Pat was out playing golf with his Dad, Travis and Vlad, Pat's Mom and I were making sure everything was ready to go.
We had the party at Leeuwkop Golf Club in Johannesburg. The decor was all red and white (OU colors).

Every one arrived on time and hung around waiting to surprise Pat. We even had a prize table set up for the top 4 winners of the game - "How Well Do You Know Pat?" Our prizes were mainly from America - with Kraft Mac and Cheese, Ibuprofen and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups topping the list! (Can't get that stuff in Africa)
Pat called me on the phone...everyone was quiet. He told me to come pick them up, they were done playing. I said, "okay, on my way!!" He had no clue what was going on!

Everyone hid quietly inside and Cody, Travis and Vlad somehow led Pat to the party room...
SURPRISE!!!


We had a champagne toast and sang "Happy Birthday!" Everyone mingled and then ate dinner.


Time for cake! Do not ask me why the cake man put hearts on a 30 year old man's cake. I also thought that "red" looked a little pink to me! I chose to pick my battles on this day and let it slide with that cake man. I was also hoping for so much "fire" on that cake, that no one would notice those girly hearts.

Light em up!

Cody suggested that b/c we had already sang "Happy Birthday," we should instead teach everyone the words to "Boomer Sooner" and have them sing that instead. And so we did!!
Pat says, "Good job guys!!"

...and blow out those candles!

Now onto drinking and dancing. Mark Graves (Pat's friend) had made the whole party playlist for us on an MP3 player. He did a great job and Pat loved his picks. Mark made up "dinner music," "dancing music" and "last song of the night music." Thanks MARK!!!! What a great gift for Pat.
All of our SA friends at the party!










...Randy and Cody having a ball...



...Pat and I...


Thanks to Chris/Kelly (above) and Travis/Dao (below) for helping so much with the invite list. They got me everyone's email addresses and clued me in on Pat's friends to invite in order to not leave anyone out.



It's a sign of a good party when no one wants to leave it! They even started a dance circle!

Cody taking his turn in the circle! Go Cody Go!

Happy BIG 30 Pat!!!!
Special thanks to Chris and Kelly for helping with the invite list, helping set up for the party and taking pictures....and to Rochelle for taking additional pictures....and to Travis for the invite list and taking Pat golfing with a bottle of Jack on the day of....and to Vlad for making sure everyone was on target and for giving me updates as to what hole they were on when and when to except them... and to Mark Graves for the excellent music playlists....and to Pat's parents, Randy and Cody for helping with everything else and making 5 trips up to the golf club to figure everything out!!!

Here's To You Pat and the fact that I'll always be 9months younger then you! hehehe