Keeping Secrets is Hard!

We did it!

Remember in my last post how I said we had lots of things cookin' here? Well… we were cookin' up a surprise party for my mom. She's an occasional reader so I couldn't say anything about it.

Last weekend… That's right. One (just one) week ago…

My dad came over and suggested that we throw a surprise birthday party for my mom and a close family friend (Mrs. G) back in our home town (2 hours away from here). Sure… No problem. How many people are we talking about? …Ohhh… just a few, mostly just the teachers (my mom and dad both worked at the school back home) and a few other close friends. …Okay, so we're talking about 30-40 people right? …Probably.

So my dad and the close friend's husband (Mr. G) went about trying to organize this thing.
They both made a few phone calls to people in town and asked them to call others, sent out some e-mails, left some messages on answering machines and reserved the community center. Problem… they weren't telling people the same thing! People were given different party times, some were told to bring a covered dish, others were told it would just be cake and coffee. Sigh…

Meanwhile… Mr. and Mrs. G's kids and I were trying to coordinate on the food plans with no idea how many people to expect or really any idea what we were doing!

Since dad said he would provide the meat… on Wednesday, I went with him to get some already cooked barbeque pork. On Friday, after work, when the meat place was already closed… I was quickly told we didn't buy enough meat. No time for discussion, mom was just in the other room. No problem… I'll find some more meat.

Meanwhile… I'm in charge of cake or cupcakes. A normal person would probably just go to the bakery at this point or at least keep it simple, right? Not me… can't do simple… oh no… have to impress all the folks back home… sigh…

Decorations… I did my best.

Plates, cups, napkins, chips, buns… tried to think of everything. The other family took care of all the drinks and brought a roaster for the meat.

There were several times my dad said things that almost gave away the surprise. I was sure my mom knew something was up. She thought they were going home for the day to visit Mr. and Mrs. G and to go out to dinner with them and another couple. How they got my mom to the community center is another long and funny story but she really was very surprised. As they were walking into the building she even said "We can't go in there. There's people in there. They've got something going on."

Anyway… when it was all said and done I think we had 50-60 people come. We barely had enough meat, but I think everyone got to eat. I made about 55 cupcakes, so hopefully everyone that wanted one, got one. It all worked out. It was fun. Mom and Mrs. G were surprised. It was a great day and one we will be laughing about for a long time.