Reba McEntire spent her 70th birthday playing a show in Uncasville, Conn. But just because the singer was traveling didn’t mean she didn’t get to see family.

In fact, her son Shelby Blackstock and his wife Marissa pulled off a truly incredible birthday surprise to make sure they were there to celebrate McEntire’s special day. They kept the whole thing under wraps, and when they finally pulled off the big reveal, McEntire was so shocked that all she could do was cry happy tears.

Marissa documented the whole thing on social media, including an elaborate ruse to make sure that her country star mother-in-law had no idea they were coming.

The couple came up with an alibi, even posting on Facebook that they were headed to Chicago for a baby shower. But it was all an elaborate scheme: They were in fact headed to Connecticut to attend McEntire’s show and surprise her with a party afterwards.

“We lied…BIG TIME,” Marissa joked in her video recap, posting a selfie from the audience of McEntire’s set during her performance of her song, “You Lie.”

At this point, the singer still had no idea that her son and daughter-in-law were in the audience.

That surprise came later, after the concert, when McEntire and her boyfriend Rex Linn walked back into the green room. She was too shocked to say anything at first when she spotted her son in the crowd, but the singer’s stunned smile, and the tears that followed, said it all.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marissa Blackstock (@rissablackstock)

Still speechless, an emotional McEntire walked up to give Shelby a hug, and they joked about all the lies he had to tell in order to pull off the surprise visit.

Then the family celebrated with friends, presents and even a spectacular red birthday cake decorated with a sparkler.
On Friday (March 28) to celebrate her birthday, McEntire shared a lengthy account of the day she was born with her fans. The singer revealed that she was a breech birth — meaning that she was positioned rump first, not head first, as she descended into the birth canal.

That meant doctors had to turn her around before her mother, Jacqueline Smith, gave birth: A painful procedure, and McEntire said that Jacqueline had “only gas” as pain relief.
“After all that, she kept me. So glad she did,” McEntire said in her post.