My husband's birthday is in less than a week and once again, I'm trying to outdo myself.  I really don't know how this time.  After his lamest birthday ever (we were moving off base and had our white glove test that day), almost his entire family drove up from Utah and Idaho as a surprise the following year.  My mom made up a fake invite for my aunt's surprise party, mailed it to us, I told my husband we were going to it, and I had to be really sneaky to make this possible.  First of all, I knew he would say we couldn't afford to eat at the restaurant, so I lied and told him my rich uncle was paying for all of us.  I also had to call someone about a scout thing that was planned and ask him to tell my husband it was canceled so he wouldn't insist on going to that instead.

His family arrived at my mom's house while he was at work.  I called to see where he was - stuck in Seattle traffic.  Not long after that, I decided to check again and he was in the neighborhood.  I calmly hung up the phone and yelled, "RUN!!!!"  His family had to hide their cars somewhere else and then they ran to the back yard.

I wanted my mom to capture the surprise on video, so I asked her to go ahead.  My husband asked why she was leaving so early.  I said she had to pick up my uncle from the airport because he was coming straight from a conference to the restaurant.  He totally believed me.  Ha ha ha ha ha.

I stalled him while his family ran out front to their cars and drove to the restaurant.  I wanted them to have a 15 minute head start and with a 1-year-old, it was easy to come up with reasons not to leave yet (diaper changes and stuff).  Really, my work wasn't very hard.  I just lied a lot.  His family had to drive all the way here.

On our way down to the restaurant, I said I hoped my uncle wouldn't screw this up and bring my aunt at the wrong time.  My husband laughed, agreeing that that was likely to happen.  When we pulled in front of the restaurant, I said, "Oh!  I forgot I was supposed to call ahead to make sure everyone gets in OK!  I'll run in while you park!"  Really, I wanted to make sure everyone was seated.  It was so fun.  Everyone was sitting there with their menus in front of their faces.

When my husband walked in and the menus dropped, his first thought was, "That was really nice of my family to come to her aunt's birthday party."  HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!  Took a while before he figured out it was all for him.

And I put dinner on the credit card.  Naughty me.  Maybe I should've sent the bill to my uncle who was actually in New York and not attending my aunt's phoney birthday party?

Then last year I sent him to Alaska with my first paycheck.  He had this great opportunity to be there with his best friends after 20 years.  One friend moved back there and the other was going on a business trip.  He had a wonderful time and now I fear I can't do anything better than that.  Poo.

But I do have a cookbook his mom sent for Christmas with the recipes he ate growing up.  I think I will try to make him a meal like his mom made along with the disgusting cherry chocolate cake he likes so much (last year I knocked myself out making a cake with camoflauge frosting).  Only he will eat it.  Me and the kids can have ice cream or something.  But not that awful ice cream from last night that tasted like coffee.  That was sick.

Unless I strike it rich suddenly, this is about as cool as his birthday is going to get.

Tags: Birthdays

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