Brad's first "Surprise Birthday Party"

The youth staff at Cedar Park really wanted to give Brad a surprise birthday party. I have to admit, when they first approached me with the idea I was a bit skeptical. Every attempt for the past 13 years that I have made at throwing him a surprise birthday party, has failed miserably. But because I love my hubby, and thought he well deserved it, I went along. The idea was to do it before his actual birthday, and pretend that it was a youth staff "meeting". Most of it went without a hitch. We normally have some type of food catered, or brought in during our meetings, so he didn't think twice as we ordered super yummy food from a local Italian restaurant. The only slight problem we had, rested unfortunately, on my shoulders. My job was to get him to the "meeting" at 6pm, while everybody else was going to show up at 5:30 to set up and decorate.

The big day arrived, and I did my best to act as normal as possible. Luckily I had a lot of errands to run that day, picking up cheesecakes for dessert from Costco, and returning a few things at different stores. But right in the middle of my errands I got a phone call from Brad asking where I was. When I told him I'd be home about 4:30, I was met with silence. Finally he said, "Leah, don't stress me out today. Your idea of being on time to things, and my idea of being on time to things fall in to two very different categories. I would like to LEAVE the house no later than 5:00 today, so be home as soon as possible." When I told him how ridiculous he was being, and that the meeting didn't even start until 6:00, he ended the conversation by saying that we would just have to drive two separate cars. Aaaaaghh! Panic attack. There was no way to get him to change his mind, without flat out telling him, "NO! You can't go early, you'll ruin the surprise!" So, I quickly called Brad's secretary who was heading up the decorating committee and told her that Brad would most likely beat everybody to the party, including them! She didn't sound overly worried, and just said to stall as long as possible. Not so easy.

I got home and told Brad not to leave without me and that I was going to take a quick 5 minute shower. He said, "That's fine, I'll start loading the kids in the car, why don't you just meet us in the parking lot." Well, my shower took a little longer than I expected, then I had to find clothes... I tried to stall as long as possible, without actually making him too mad, then I got in the car. I pointed out happily that it was only 5:30, and we would still arrive at least 15 minutes before the meeting was going to start. Wrong move. I then was priviledged to listen to him very patiently tell me how stressful it was for him not to be the first one to arrive when he was in charge of a meeting. One look at his face told me this was a subject that we would just have to "agree to disagree" on.

We pulled into the already full parking lot where I received the "I told you so" look, and I had to try my best not to smile, as I imagined him begging for forgiveness in a matter of minutes. We walked down the ramp to the youth rooms, and...

"SURPRISE!!!"

Everyone on our youth staff pitched in to buy Brad a new i-phone!
He of course got teary-eyed... very cute.

Brad's favorite dessert - Strawberry Cheesecake

The best part of the whole evening was when Brad came up to me with his notes in hand, and asked me if I could start the ice-breaker so he could get the meeting going. Silly goose. I finally had to flat out explain to him that there was no "meeting", and that it was all a cover so he wouldn't get suspicious. It took some doing, but I finally convinced him that we were all there to celebrate him and his special day. And there is none more deserving. What a guy!