A Surprisingly Surprising Surprise Party

As previously posted, my fabulous husband hit a pretty big birthday milestone last week. A moment like this cannot be overlooked, and so a couple of months ago I decided to throw him a surprise party. Nothing too big or out of control, since Glenn does not like to make a big deal out of things (he is not the propose-over-the-jumbotron-at-a baseball-game kind of guy), but just enough for those closest to him to show how much we love him.

I did not realize how much planning goes into one of these things....how are we going to get him out of the house, how are we going to get him back to the house, when/where will we actually call out "Surprise!", gifts/no gifts, just cake/more than cake, and exactly what kinds of lies are we going to have to tell to pull this thing off?

Decoy party the night before

Here is how it all went down...

I told Glenn that his mom would watch the kids while we went out to dinner for his birthday on Friday (clue #1: dinner and no movie?). Pizza and movie night would be moved to Saturday so Daryl could make wings (clue #2: Daryl took Friday off and had plenty of time to make wings). We had the girl cousins over for a sleep over Thursday (clue #3: Grandma calling about the cakes and me chalking my non-answer up to the confusion of getting the girls settled) so we were ready for some peace and quiet the next evening. Glenn got to come home early from work that day (clue #4: Nate showing up with the ice chest and me shooing him away) and we went to dinner at Five Guys. This took about 30 minutes, so I suggested we go over to Old Navy (clue #5: I usually get very stressed out when shopping with Glenn at a store like this, but I was cool as a cucumber and took my sweet time). We then had 20 more minutes to kill, unbeknownst to Glenn, so we stopped at Giant Eagle to get some made-up thing I needed. A quick stop in the bathroom (clue #6: the grocery store bathroom? Really? OK, maybe that isn't such a stretch for me) for a phone call to alert the troops, and we were headed home. My stomach had been in knots the whole time and the climax of the evening was just ahead...

We pulled into the garage and the decoy was the turtle sandbox on the side of the house. I made up some song and dance about how the kids were playing and must have moved it up there and could Glenn put it back on the patio for me? I ran our bags inside and then went to catch up, amazed by the silence in the backyard.

We turned the corner and, to Glenn's genuine surprise, there was everybody...all of Glenn's family (even his sister and her kids from Utah), old friends we haven't seen in ages, and even our neighbors who just happened to be at my father-in-law's 40th surprise party more than 20 years ago! I was so pleased to see how nicely the kids had decorated the backyard, to see how much effort had been made by family to get things set up, to see people come to celebrate Glenn and the great guy he is.

We had four cakes for Glenn's four decades of life, decorated by the girls and me (Andrew helped with the baking). And then we thought it would be fun to have everyone bring the funniest birthday cards they could find. This added another level of suspense...would someone bring a Hallmark card? Are there any funny American Greetings cards at all? It was a lot of fun to hear Glenn read them and see him check the back of each one. (I think the debate is still up for grabs.)It was a wonderful evening. The weather was perfect, the cakes were yummy, the company was fantastic, and it was all in honor of an amazing man. There was stress and hard work involved in pulling the whole thing off, but with a lot of help--we did it! The kids loved it, and it was so worth it to hear Glenn tell me how much he appreciated the thought and the work that went into it, how it made turning 40 so much more meaningful to him (even more than, say, Indians tickets would have been--I know, I asked!). Sure, I know Glenn doesn't like to be the center of attention, but that's what you are when you have a birthday--the center of attention. There's just no way around it. I am glad that I did this for my husband, and what's even better--he is glad too!