As hard as we try to separate the two occasions, they often blur together as one celebration. I'm not a fan of giving him combo gifts and always make sure to find some birthday paper amid the sea of red and green Christmas wrapping that is going on. Sadly though, even with different paper and putting the gifts as far from the Christmas tree as possible, his birthday never seems to get enough significant attention as its own meaningful event.
I was determined to make that different when he turned 60 last December. But as the holiday rush and madness hit, coupled with our trip to Disney World, my determination waned. Plus, how do you squeeze a big birthday bash in among all the other holiday parties and expect it to be well attended?
I now have an answer for that. You throw a surprise 60 1/2 birthday party 6 months later. I guess you could say the surprise part was pretty easy...who would be expecting a party in June for their December birthday?
Needless to say, he was shocked. And after the initial blow was just setting in, he went around the corner to find 3 of his siblings and a couple of their spouses who had traveled down from Wisconsin for the event...something that would have been hard for them to do in December.
He basically spent the whole evening in utter amazement of how we pulled it all off without him catching wind of it at all.
It was PERFECT.
The cake was ready.
The food was ready.
The paparazzi were ready.
He finally came in the door. (My sister got a great pic from her angle...hoping to switch it out soon ;) hint, hint!)
Video of his entrance, his first question? "Who cut the grass?"...classic dad.
The second shock of his siblings in the next room.
Here is a slide show of the rest of the pictures. If you're interested in captions, run your mouse over each picture. If you want it to go faster, just click the + sign.
A special thanks to Kim for hosting it at their house and keeping it a secret so well. She did a wonderful job! And of course it was extra special to have that many people traveling down from Wisconsin for the party...thanks so much y'all!
We love you dad and can't think of a better way to have spent Father's Day weekend!
2 comments:
Glad you were able to pull it off! Was that Mrs. Tenpenney in the pics or am I loosing my mind?
yep, that was her! i hadn't seen her (or many of the other guests) in many years! it was such a fun night. i forgot to post the video of him coming in...am editing it now. i forgot that the first thing he asked when coming in the door was, "who mowed the grass?"! too funny!
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