2. Make a plan. I have been thinking and planning a surprise party for months. Seriously. I think I first mentioned it to my dad right after his birthday in October of last year. His answer was "sounds good but we have plenty of time". Typical.
I, on the other hand, was already thinking location (church fellowship hall vs. restaurant vs. home vs. any other place I could think of), food (Ms. Rhea Ann was a must and I was praying she'd be available, finger food vs. dinner), who to invite and how would we get mom there without knowing what was going on.
I had some really fun times just thinking through how it would look and how we would make her be surprised.
3. Enlist some advisors. I was blessed to have Ms. Rhea Ann and Aunt Lisa to help me with ideas and such. I sent them some long and annoyingly detailed emails about my ideas and questions and requests for suggestions. They both were supportive and helpful and gave some good suggestions. I also kept my dad updated on the plans and asked his "approval" on everything. He was always agreeable and threw in some wise suggestions but mostly was grateful all he had to do was listen and know his daughter (who is scarily like his wife when it comes to making plans) would take care of everything. And me being a little controlling sometimes had no objections with this arrangement.
Since this is something I would normally be doing with my mom... it was extremely hard to not give anything away in our daily conversations.
4. Ensure guests are invited. I am blessed with a talented husband who made the invitations for me. We printed and cut the invitations ourselves.
5. Make lists. This is a must. I had a list for everything. Including a detailed list for my husband, brother, and dad on what had to be done before the party. People made fun of me for this but it worked and they got everything done.
6. Execution. I told mom weeks ago that I was taking her for a girls afternoon on the afternoon of March 29th to celebrate her birthday, since I could not be in town for her birthday. She suggested meeting the boys for dinner somewhere after to celebrate but I suggested grilling out at home instead. Just so she had a plan in her head.
Timing was everything. I could not have mom back to the house until 6:30 when all of her family and close friends would be assembled. We were hungry for lunch at 12:30. We left and that gave me 6 hours to fill without her suspecting that we were filling time. How did we fill the time? Easy. Lunch at The Looking Glass including a delicious desert, strawberry napoleon. We talked and talked and talked some more. Next was the scrapbook store next door. Then on to Hobby Lobby where we spent over 2 hours looking at scrapbook stuff, party supplies, home decor and little wind up toys. We had way too much fun and were laughing almost the whole time. Next, Linens and Things. The timing was perfect (totally a God thing) and we got in the car at 6:00.
I told her that we (the boys and I) had planned a fabulous birthday week and tonight was the beginning. But she couldn't know where we were going. I pulled out a sleep mask (aka blindfold) and informed her she had to wear it. My already hyped up mother then went crazy when I made her put on the blindfold and tiara (a purchase from Hobby Lobby). She couldn't be still, kept complaining about it hurting her nose and was worried that someone would see her. This coming from the lady who had not an hour earlier worn the tiara in the store, made lots of noise with the toys, and did a cheer in the flower aisle using greenery as pom poms.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at the house. I think she probably guessed we were home based on the long curvy road drive there... BUT... I don't think she knew what was in store. I carefully led her up the driveway and sidewalk and step into our house where our family and friends were anxiously waiting.
I removed the blindfold and everyone yelled "SURPRISE"!!!
And she was.
1 comment:
How SWEET :) I KNOW you had SO much fun planning that :)
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