a surprise party.

Once upon a time Max had two friends, Thomas and Nerissa. Max had known these two friends for years and years, but for many different reasons these two friends had never really spent much time together. One fateful night while they were in Florida for our wedding, all of the stars aligned, the humidity was at the perfect level, the drinks were just cold enough, etc, etc and a spark flew (or, you know... what ever it is that happens when two people meet).


To make this long story shorter we will skip to the part that relates to this post....


Thomas has been working in Africa for over a year now.  He recently was offered a position with the same company that allows him to now live in Brisbane part time.  In honour of his "homecoming", his amazingly thoughtful girlfriend came up with the idea to throw him a SURPRISE welcome home party. Due to his 6am arrival to Brisbane, we decided to have the party at our house.


Nerissa did ALL of the planning and gave me the job of decorating which I was SO excited about :)  I decided to do an Australian theme, you know... because he was returning home to Australia (get it?!?). 

Max's mom and stepdad were here in town this weekend. It is always great to see them but was really great this time because Val was such a HUGE help with the decorating!

And now for the main event... 

the SURPRISE!!!

I am pretty sure he had NO IDEA because he was completely speechless and a bit shocked.  

Blake, Ryan and Mason playing after the surprise.

Little Blake... he is going to be a big brother soon!

Chloe and Byron starting the fire.

The guest of honour preparing the meat.

Nerissa's yummy salad!

Maybe I should have been helping with dinner instead of taking photos of myself... oops.

Max has known Chloe since she was born.  They are best friends :)

Our teenager :)  Isn't he looking so much older now?

Sam and I enjoying the warm fire.

Mason and Ryan

Mason and Ryan were obsessed with Thomas's mini Moke (the little car that the Welcome Home sign was attached to).

I love this picture of Mason with the little teddybear in his lap... so cute!

They were trying to escape the zombies that were chasing their car.  This is the point where they asked me to stop taking their pictures because the zombies could see the flash.  I didn't want to be responsible for a zombie attack... so I did as I was told and left :)

Once the cold winter moisture soaked through the streamers until they hung so low you could no longer walk under them, we went to bed. 

I think this was a very successful surprise party... and I know everyone is happy to have Thomas back on this side of the world.

  Funny how these two people had to travel all the way to Florida to find each other when all along they were right there in front of each other; only one degree of separation between them.  Something to think about for all you single people out there ;)