They're hiding... in the closet!!

So yesterday I threw Mike a surprise birthday party. I can't think of the last time that he had a birthday party with a few friends, and since this was his last birthday in the states for some time, I decided to make an obnoxiously big deal out of it this year... and fortunately he loved it.

I planned the surprise birthday party 3-4 weeks in advance and I still can't believe that I actually got away with it and he didn't find out (and that I didn't tell him... I'm sooooo bad at keeping things a secret from him!) So the plan was to "babysit" for the W's two kids, and the other 2 couples (the L's, and MB & LL) would arrive at the W's shortly before our arrival. Then we would go to the Summit brewing company for a tour and some adult-like beverages, and then head back to our place for lunch and games.

A week or two before the party, the W's ask us to "babysit" their kids from 10-1 on the appointed Saturday. Mike loves having open gym at school with his basketball kids from 8-10:30-ish and was bummed out about the conflicting times. He first told me that he would have open gym and that he would just meet me at the W's after he was done at school. I tried to put a stop to that immediately by telling him that I thought it was silly to have two cars out in St. Paul for only a couple of hours. He sighed at my disapproval while I died of laughter on the inside and tried my darndest not to smile or laugh, but he was determined to make the two events work.

He hummed and hawed over it and finally decided to ask the W's if they could push their lunch date back to 11-ish. I laughed aloud when he proposed this to me, which resulted in him asking, "Why are you laughing? Are you laughing at me?" I didn't know what to say, so my excuse was, "I just got the giggles, that's all!" That was enough to convince him, as I have truly had the giggles before. So I called the W's to warn them of what Mike was going to ask of them and pleaded with them to come up with a fool-proof way to not only get the two of us out there, but to not push it back to 11 (all this while hiding in our bedroom closet and whispering... living in such a small apartment, it's hard to have a truly private phone conversation.) They came through and came up with the idea that baby W had nap time at 10 and toddler W had a music class at the community center at 10:30 so they needed both of us there at the same time. Mike, not one to always question people or force his opinion on others, did not even make a peep about pushing the time back to 11. Victory. However, the week prior to the party, Mike started coming down with the nasty cold that is going around and I had to really pray that the whole ordeal would work out!

So Saturday morning arrives and we drive to the W's, only to see that as we are pulling into the married housing area where the W's live, Mr. W. is driving right in front of us with "the real" babysitters for the day. They park and jump out of the car and Mike sees the babysitters... he slowly parks the car and the wheels in his head start turning. He turns to me and asks, "Did the W's not think we were coming? Maybe it's a trick. Maybe we're not babysitting at all." I just started laughing and kept saying, "I don't know, I guess we'll just have to ask them when we get inside."

We get inside and toddler W greets us and starts yakking away about getting us a chocolate snack at the grocery store. Mike thinks, "Maybe we are babysitting... he's talking to Karly as if we are." Plus, there is no sign of the other babysitters around. Mr. W starts distracting Mike with conversation about basketball while toddler W continues yakking and then says, "They're hiding... in the closet!!!" I burst out laughing, knowing full well that the other two couples are hiding in the closet. I scoop toddler W up in my arms and distract him with a toy. With my outburst of laughter, Mike is suddenly interested in what toddler W is talking about, but by that time I have toddler W distracted with other things. This is when the other two couples pop out of the closet and non-chalantly (because they thought toddler W ruined the surprise... hehe, three year olds are so funny!!!) say, "Surprise." Mike was surprised though!

So off we went to the Summit brewery. We had a tour, took some pictures, drank some adult-like beverages (or not... I was thankful that they had root beer!), and had some good laughs and conversation. Then, as planned, we headed back to our place for a spaghetti and meatball lunch with salad provided by the L's, homemade bread made by the W's, and non-adult like beverages provided by MB and LL (3 after the brewery tour was quite enough.) I also had ordered a raspberry torte from Cafe Latte for the event (which was another lie in itself, as I bought it at an auction right under Mike's nose... thanks to CA for her help in this!!) We played Scattergories and apparently need a re-match with the W's to verify the true winner.

It was a fun Saturday and Mike felt really loved.Thanks to the W's, the L's and MB & LL for joining us for the festivities! Oh, and the chocolate snack that toddler W was talking about was a gift that the W's got for Mike. :)

A few more pics from the day...