Mother's Day Surprise

(not for me!)

For my lucky MIL. She's a great mom to her 10 (!) kids and a wonderful MIL. This year, her sons decided to re-do her 30yr old kitchen. They wanted to make it s surprise, so they enlisted the help of FIL and started making plans about 3 months ago. FIL took MIL on a two week vacation while the boys worked like crazy to rip out the old kitchen and install the new stuff.

They went all out: completely tearing out the old cabinets, moving the stove and going from electric to gas, removing the 'popcorn' ceiling and old paneling, knocking down half a wall....the list goes on & on. Then they got new countertops, new appliances, painted and patched, and touched up everything. FIL footed the bill, but the boys did ALOT of work. It was like an episode of Extreme Home Makeover.

MIL arrived home at 11pm on Saturday night (I couldn't be there, as *my* boys didn't have a babysitter and 11pm is way too late to have a 4 month old & nearly 3yr old up). Everyone hid and waited for her to walk in the door. She says her knees nearly gave out when she realized what they'd done. What a wonderful Mother's Day gift she got- not just the kitchen, but all the work and emotion behind it. She's a really sweet woman and deserves it all....

Some pics: