I am Grandma Sandy (according to my 4 yr old): Fierce, Fabulous, and Forty!

Recently, we were honored to host a surprise 40th birthday party for our fabulous friend, Ginny!

Now, Ginny and Grandma Sandy’s friendship goes waaaay back to when we were both Chi Omegas together in college.

Little did either of us know back then that one day, not only would she and her family be instrumental in God’s plan to call us to our current church, but that we’d be hosting a throw-down in her honor!!

Disclaimer: When I say throw-down, I of course mean it in the most polite of terms! :)

SURPRISE!!!

This is Ginny and her husband, Dr. G, arriving at the party. Dr. G and The Chef concocted a plan to get Ginny out of their house and out to ours.

Not an easy feat because we live at least 30 min away, out in the boondocks.

As in, they live INTOWN and we don’t even live intown, much less INTOWN. Those of you that know where we live will completely understand what I mean!

Personally, I thought the plan was brilliant and we would’ve all pulled it off perfectly if Ginny wasn’t so dang clever.

Nonetheless, the plan was this: Dr. G, who is our dentist, had planned to take Ginny out to dinner. He texted The Chef with the signal and The Chef called Dr. G to say that Middle Man had just jumped into the pool and knocked out his front permanent teeth.

Again, those of you that know Middle Man would understand that this was a most perfect scenario and one that would be entirely believable to Ginny.

And those of you that know Dr. G and Ginny would completely agree that it was a perfect idea because they would both insist on coming to the rescue!

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Ginny to put together a few other inconsistencies from earlier in the day before she started figuring out something was amiss.

The plethora of cars in our yard was probably also a tip-off.

As well as the live band playing.

But at any rate......

SURPRISE!!!

Dr. G’s sister got their 3 boys out to the house before the party started and Ginny was excited to see them.

This is their youngest, and one of Dogos’ bff’s.

This is Ginny’s equally fabulous Mom.

When I say that my friendship with Ginny goes waaaay back, well, my friendship with her mom goes back even further.

Ginny’s Mom, whom I’ll just refer to as Mama Owl, was our Chi Omega chapter advisor when I pledged Chi O as a very young 17 year old, many moons ago.

But she’s so much more than that.

Y’all.

Have you ever known anyone in your lifetime that just seems to pour forth wisdom with every word she says?

That’s Mama Owl, and anyone that knows her will attest to that fact.

I could go on and on about the respect that I have for this woman!

She is truly one of my favorite people.

Now, I mentioned the fact that there was a live band.

This is our friend, Wes, and it was his band that Dr. G hired for Ginny’s throw-down.

Now, again, our friendship with Wes and his family goes waaay back, and yet another reason why we’re so thrilled to be back in south MS.

I was so excited and honestly a little amazed that we actually had a live band playing in our carport that of course I had to take a little video!

I hope you didn’t get dizzy watching that!

Here’s a pic of some of the guests starting to mingle right after the birthday girl arrived.

This is Ginny’s sister-in-law, who did all of the party decorations and I thought she did a great job!

Sister-in-law decorated each table to represent each phase of Ginny’s life.

Friends from our Sunday School class brought appetizers which were served on the “high school” table.

Then later we served The Chef’s BBQ pulled pork, and ohmyword it is so delicious, cole slaw, potato salad, and baked beans.

There was also a college table, Chi Omega table, and a Fierce, Fabulous, and Forty table.

Cute!!

But my favorite table was......

.....the Lego table!!

Ginny and Dr. G have 3 boys the same ages as our 3 younger children so this table was perfect!

It didn’t take long before some of the party guests got creative!

As darkness fell and folks were full of BBQ, the band cranked it up a little.

There’s no respectful southern throw-down.....

...without some Hank!!!!

The kids had SO much fun dancing!

Guitar Boy had some friends over, too, and they were cuttin' a rug but wouldn’t let me get them on camera.

And thankfully so, because if they had, I would’ve been concerned.

They are 16, after all.

Ginny and Dr. G’s youngest hung in as long as he could, bless his heart.

Finally, after all the party guests left and food, decorations etc were put away, Ginny and Dr. G’s family, as well as other Sunday School friends and their kids, stuck around a while.

And the pool proved to be too much for some to resist.

It wasn’t long before kids jumped in, as well as a few Moms.

You may be wondering why there is no one in the pool in that picture.

Well, that would be because the kids and Moms may or may not have jumped in, still in their party clothes, and swam until their hearts were content.

But I’ll never tell.

Have I mentioned how much I love our church family and what fun people they are?

It was such a fun night.

So fun, in fact, that the next morning, The Boss said, “Mom, can we do that again tonight?”

So, thank you, Ginny!!