A Surprise for Me

Following the amazing dinner that my husband made for me on Friday of last week, my actual birthday, I spent the next day NOT cleaning the kitchen (this is important later) and went shopping to try to find something nice to wear because I knew that we were going to be going out to dinner and then meet up with our friends somewhere to celebrate my birthday. I knew no more than that. Mike had been telling me that he made reservations for dinner somewhere (wouldn't tell me where) then we'd go to Wynkoop for a couple of beers with everyone. For the record, we hadn't been out downtown in ages, but hey it'd be fun.

Saturday morning, Mike was working out in the yard getting the last little bit of rock cleared out and made a trip to the dump during the day. I didn't think this was at all odd because that's what he does - the man cannot stop moving if he had too! He kept telling me what all had to be done - washing the dog, mowing the yard, making planter boxes... all kinds of things that had to be done in addition to his schoolwork. I, of course, kept telling him that it would fine - we could do it all tomorrow. I thought I got him to quit doing yard work and to go do schoolwork, but somehow I don't think that was actually the case.

So I get home from a very unsuccessful (read: frustrating) trip to the mall - seriously, I couldn't even find a cute new top to wear with jeans or a skirt, nothing - with just enough time to get ready (and try on everything in my closet at least once) before it was time to leave to go to dinner. Again, I'm thinking, "Mike, why on earth are our reservations so early? It's only 5:00 and this is Denver and it's summer and no one will be there..." My questions went essentially unanswered but we ended up at Izakaya Den (owned by the same brothers who own our favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Den and conveniently across the street from said sushi restaurant) for a fabulous dinner of sushi and Japanese and Global tapas.

While at dinner, Mike says that we need to stop by the house on the way to meet up with our friends because there is a group present for me that he left in the garage that he wanted to bring since our friends had all gone in together on it. OK, whatever - I'm still not thinking anything too odd is going on. It would have made more sense to remember to pick up the gift on the way out when we left 2 hours before, but whatever.

So we get back to the house, the garage door goes up and I notice the Christmas lights that we have strung up from our rehearsal dinner last year are lit up. I asked why and Mike said he must have been playing with them and forgotten to turn them off. So then, I'm focused on finding the present to see what it looks like (I know, I'm awful, right?) that I don't notice that Mike is trying to steer me towards the backyard. When he opens the door to the backyard from our garage, I notice that someone has put streamers and a Happy Birthday banner up on the patio. Do I notice that 15 of our friends are hanging out to the left of me? No, that'd be too easy. FINALLY, I hear "Surprise" and tons of noise makers and notice that our friends are there, there are lights all around the backyard (good thing I cleaned up all the dog messes earlier in the day), there are bins of drinks - all the makings of a party!

So can I go back to the fact that I had at least 15 people (with more arriving later) at the house and I KNEW that the kitchen had looked like a complete wreck when I left for dinner, much less the rest of the house, and I was thoroughly embarrassed. So what's the first thing I do? I head straight for the kitchen. Did I think I was going to do the dishes? I'm not sure, I just knew I had to see what it looked like. I have amazing friends though who when they first showed up to get the party started, went straight to the kitchen and washed all the dishes. Luckily, no one cared that 90% of all the clothes I owned were strewn around my bedroom and that mail was sitting on the built-ins. And if I had only spent less time on my awful shopping trip and more at home picking up the house, I would have only been embarrassed because there was a surprise party in my backyard for me!!

You can fully appreciate the green grass!!

Harper was thrilled to partake in her first surprise party

A yummy red velvet cake - Matt and Emily did an awesome job!!