I've had so much fun over the past month gearing up for his day - I was really hoping I could pull off the surprises without him finding out (which has happened in the past). And I tell ya, it's hard not to casually mention something about part of the stuff going on. I did have a couple of small slips, but tried my best to cover them up and move away from that topic of the conversation. And in the end, I did pull it off! So, pardon the lengthy post here, but it was just so fun to put this thing together - I had to share about it all. :)
Since it was a milestone birthday, I knew I had to do something. So the planning actually started a couple of months ago. I wanted to get pictures and notes from friends from his past (college, seminary, etc.), as well as immediate family, so sent out a letter asking for involvement in this special project I was doing. The response got off to a slow start, but by last week I ended up with a nice stack of letters and some great pictures. All of this went into a 40th birthday scrapbook for him, which turned out to be just an amazing book of memories.
This last week I put a picture of him in our Sutton paper, along with the Henderson paper (where he grew up) - a shot of him when he was little, and wishing him a happy 40th. I had really hoped the guys at work would play up this big event, and that his discovery of the ad would be fun. Well, I got my wish! Thursday when the paper came out, he was so busy at work that he didn't see the picture. And his coworkers obviously hadn't seen it, either - so no office chatter... yet. Well, Kurt had a lunch meeting downtown, and at the meeting one of the ladies held up the paper for all to see and announced that Kurt had his picture in the paper and was turning 40. He said, "What?!" as he had no idea this was even coming. He was truly surprised, and got some good ribbing from those at the meeting. By then, the guys at his work had discovered the picture, too, so the gal up front photocopied it really big and taped it in the front office. And I guess another guy blew it up even more and put it up in the outside offices. Very fun! I was thrilled that the ad was such a hit.
Then Friday Kurt's mom coordinated having a big cake delivered to the office, and then I brought in a balloon bouquet. Again, lots of attention there - I didn't want anyone to NOT know it was my honey's birthday! :)
Knowing the birthday festivities were taking place over the weekend, we just went out to eat Friday night - a casual evening out as a family, with Kurt picking the restaurant. And ice cream afterwards, of course!
Saturday was Kurt's birthday, and he actually spent the day golfing with his brother, Kevin, who lives an hour and a half from here. I knew golf was something Kurt loves, so was quite glad it worked out for him to do that. (And it gave me most of the day to get things in order here at home without him discovering any of the surprises!) He arrived home at 6, and I had ham fried and Verenika and mashed potatoes on the stove. This is his absolute favorite meal (aside from pizza) - so he was VERY happy to have his own special meal waiting for him. For dessert we had Key Lime pie. His favorite is rhubarb (no strawberries - just straight rhubarb, and not too much sugar), but not having enough rhubarb on hand to make a pie, I opted for his second favorite. And he enjoyed that, too. The kids had made some gifts for him, so after dinner he opened those up. It was so cute, you'd have thought it was one of the kids' birthdays, they were SO excited! They loved giving their gifts to Daddy, and just the whole pie and candles and singing - they had a blast.
At this point, Kurt knew "he was mine" for Sunday evening. Although I tried to word it in such a way that he wouldn't have any idea this was going to be a family event. I had lined up a sitter, as eating out is always so much easier and more enjoyable without the troops along. He had figured out where we were eating when I told him the location in Lincoln to drive. But that was okay, the surprises were still yet to come! We ate at Famous Daves, a great rib place - and again, a Kurt favorite. He was thrilled with the restaurant choice. We walked in and he put our names on the list - Kurt, party of 2. Well, I hadn't quite figured out how I was going to handle the restaurant surprise, so told him I needed to use the bathroom (which I really did!), so while he was looking the other way at the menu and various barbeque sauces out on display, I asked the guy at the front where the bathroom was, but then whispered that we were actually there with a bigger group and they should have already been sitting and waiting for us. I peeked around the corner and saw everyone, so asked the guy if he could bring us to our table. I came back to Kurt and said I thought our table was ready, and the gal came and said, "Kurt, party of 2, your table is ready". Kurt's all, "Wow, that was a quick 10 minutes" (our estimated "wait" time) - and we rounded the corner and... SURPRISE! And I have to say, Kurt was NOT expecting a table full of family! It was his parents, his brother and sister-in-law, and then a niece. I had really been hoping he wouldn't be disappointed - thinking we were just having this dinner alone, when in fact it was a family event. But he was fine with it all - and was just ready to get some ribs to eat. :)
After dinner I had another surprise up my sleeve. I'd been gathering small gifts over the past couple of months, so he'd have 40 gifts to open on his 40th birthday. (Thanks for the GREAT idea, Dana!) His mom had brought those in and had them hidden out of site. Well, I told him he had some presents to open, and handed him a couple of small ones I'd stashed in my purse... a Heath candy bar (his favorite), and then some car air fresheners. He looked very confused. Air fresheners? Then his mom popped up another gift... and he started to open that one. And out came the whole stash - so I let him know he was getting 40 gifts! He could NOT believe it, and thought I was kidding. But oh no, we DID had 40 gifts there for him. Lots of goofy gifts, but some good ones in there, too. I saved the best for last - and gave him his album. He was truly moved by it, and then understood why I'd been so preoccupied lately (... wrapping gifts, working on his book, etc.). Then the 40th gift was a group gift of money to buy an iPod - something he's been wanting for awhile now. Again, he was very excited about this and was the topic of conversation on the ride home later.
After saying our goodbyes and thank you's, we had a little bit of time left before we needed to head back home to relieve the babysitter, so we went to a coffee shop downtown. He brought in his scrapbook and looked through it, taking the time now to really read through all of the letters. What fun for him to take a stroll down memory lane. I was thankful for that little bit of "us" time to finish off the evening.
So all of the planning and preparing paid off. He'd been absolutely surprised by everything, yet had enjoyed himself and had a fun, memorable time. Just perfect! And I have to say, it's nice now to not have all these "secrets" to keep quiet. :)
Happy 40th Honey!
Kurt very excited to finally have his new iPod!
2 comments:
Good Job Danelle!
You ARE the Proverbs 31 woman.
hmmm, maybe i'll get an ipod for MY 40th!! ;)
you get a "Wife of the Year" award for your efforts! ;)
Post a Comment