I also was able to get some help from my wonderful mother-in-law Cindy, who was able to plan the family celebration and make it just a little bit extra special. And on a final note, I would like to add that I did manage to keep everything a secret from Chris and everything that took place was a complete and utter surprise to him (:sigh of relief:). Maybe I am not the world's worst secret keeper.
Another lucky break was the week before everything was scheduled to take place Chris was snowboarding in Tahoe which made getting the final preparations and arrangements down a piece of cake.
I arranged for the family dinner to be held on Thursday night, February 21st which also was the day of Chris' birthday. By doing so, both Mike and Tanya could be there which was really important to me, and Chris would probably need Sunday to recuperate since the 30th birthday bash with friends was set for Saturday night. I was playing up Friday night as being his special birthday night where I had a "surprise" for him so that way he would think everything was over after that and be less suspicious since he's a suspicious person by nature.
The family birthday went off amazingly well. We of course had a Chris is turning 30 sign in the yard, cooked up some fajitas (which he loved), and had his absolute favorite for dessert- red velvet cupcakes that Tanya and Cindy baked. The whole family was able to come out which was great including my family as well, and the Trahan family was able to stop by which made Chris very happy as well. Overall, a great night and a good way to start off the birthday weekend!
The next night Chris and I did dinner together, just us, which I always like, and I was able to give him something special I made for him. For those of you that know what the Quote Book is, I made him the Quote book scrapbook via the website Shutterfly. Basically, I went through all of his old photos (some more scary then others) and paired them up with quotes from his book from college. This was a very long process and took a lot of editing and deciphering what was actually written in the book, but I was able to complete it and come up with a book that Chris absolutely loves and has displayed downstairs. (Anybody that wants a copy just let me know :) )
So at this point Chris thinks his birthdayness is over. He even made plans to play basketball Sunday morning, poor guy. The biggest dilemma regarding the surprise party was how to get both Chris and I over to Dana and Wendel's in the same car (since I would be driving him home) without being totally suspicious. I give all the credit to Wendel on this as she came up with the idea a week in advance to plan a movie night with me to go see Beautiful Creatures with Allison and I, while Chris and Dana got together to play Xbox. Chris tried to foil our plans several times in the process (i.e. why can't you just meet Wendel at the theater close to us, let's go over earlier, let's go over later, what time does this movie start again?) you get the idea. But ultimately, it all worked out perfectly (other then the fact that I didn't get to see this movie!). I had Chris in the car, we were right on time for the scheduled drop off, and then the phone rings. I probably shouldn't have answered it because I always keep the volume on my phone loud, but I did anyway and of course the person calling me was lost and needed directions to the party (Richard!). I quickly tried to turn down the phone volume and answer in a way that wouldn't give anything away. In short, I pretended it was Allison, did a lot of awkward laughing, and kept saying I'm going to hang up now and I'll text you the number. Poor Richard thought I was crazy at the time, but I was able to explain better via text, get him the number to Dana's for directions, and Chris' mind was already in the zone for Xbox night that he apparently thought nothing was odd about Allison having a more manly sounding voice.
But as I said before everything went smoothly, and I was able to get him inside the house and watch his reaction as everybody jumped out and said surprise. Both Dana and Wendel came up with the idea of decorating the rooms in different themes based on Chris. So we had the gaming room with the Xbox on a projector which he did get to play, and his old futon from where he used to live. We had a College room with a variety of different games, UCF decorations, and a sign that said Heidi Court. We also had an old man cave out on the porch with danger signs, caution tape, warning cones, etc. complete with a full bar (pretty much scotch only just the way he likes) and Cuban cigars.
He made his rounds through each of the rooms and was a happy camper the whole night. The best part was we had so many friends from out-of-town and as far away as Brandon and Sarasota show up which was incredible. He felt very much loved indeed and was super excited to be reunited with his old roomies from college (Danny, Brett, and his bro Mike). With everyone's busy work schedules, getting married and starting families, I wasn't sure how many people I could actually get to come out for this, but was ultimately thrilled with the turn out and also the shout outs from the people that really couldn't make it (Craig-Kansas City, Tasha-Australia- we'll forgive you there ;) ).
And the next day he did not play basketball. Instead, he spent all day with me snuggling on the couch and watching a bunch of movies. I think we should do this birthday thing more often. ♥
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