surprise!! take 2

-second friday morning in a row where I'm anxious for Ryan to get out the door to work.

-second friday morning in a row where the moment he's driven off, I start running around cleaning the house like a crazy woman.

-second friday morning in a row I'm simultaneously changing beds, doing laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, and trying to keep my kids from killing each other.

-second friday in a row of having a guest show up to surprise Ryan!Thanks Jenn so much for coming out to see us! Ryan was so, so surprised to see us pull up with you! And I know he is so happy to have family here to celebrate his birthday! And I think you have forever earned the honor of being the favorite sister for having those ribs in tow. At least until our Portland visit when he tries to get everyone we know to eat them with us.

Whew! I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of surprised out!
It's probably just out of town guests and having people staying in our house that make it a little bit more stressful, but I'm tired of all the planning and preparing and lying and secrets. It's more stressful than I realized! I think it's because I am so not used to telling Ryan everything. And we normally love having people over and having parties and having visitors... but it's hard when I'm thinking about everything that entails by myself. It's usually both of us planning and preparing and at least sharing thoughts and excitement about these things. It's kind of overwhelming and lonely being the only one in on these things! haha!

I guess I should back up and relay the surprise of last weeks party...
Since it is Ryan's 30th birthday, I wanted to do something extra surprising. What's better than an all out surprise party?! Originally, I had all these grandiose ideas of a bunch of friends and family coming in from out of town. In the end, because of our last minute upcoming trip to Portland, we didn't get many takers on a visit out here. Which I was bummed about (I've always thought how cool would that be to be surprised by so many close friends and relatives taking the time and effort to come out and spend a weekend with you! so very unexpected!), but was comforted by the fact that since moving down here, we have at least a few more friends around to celebrate with. Except that apparently I chose the wrong weekend because half of my local invite list turned out to be out of town last weekend. Frustrating, as most of the reason I chose that weekend was to accommodate certain other out of town guests who didn't end up coming. Oh well. I have a feeling that's how it is when you're planning a summertime event.

We had a great turn-out though. The Barczaks obviously came down (yay!!) which Ryan didn't know about, the Laughlins were there, the Malones and the Malones (one of which was in charge of keeping Ryan out of the house till the appointed time, and one of which came a little too close to accidentally showing up at the same time as the guest of honor!), the Swinigans, and many of our new neighbors; the Grueners, the Fleetwoods, and the Walterscheids. I think that's it, although why do I feel like I'm leaving someone out? It was so fun to have such a houseful! Great cake, great snacks and drink, and best of all great friends with us!! We had a great time.

Michael Malone took on the job of keeping Ryan occupied till the party, which was quite a task considering that Ryan gets off work at noon on Fridays and the party wasn't until 7pm! Yeah, great planning Heather! LOL! Michael held him off as long as possible and then Ryan picked him up from work and they went out to an early happy hour at one of Malone's favorite bars to play a bit of Bocce Ball. Malone (who's birthday was actually the following day) kept chuckling to himself as Ryan was thinking they were out pseudo-celebrating Malone's birthday and kept offering to buy Mike a beer to celebrate. Thanks for all your help Mike and for being such a good liar ;) !
It all went off without a hitch, even though we had the usual close calls and funny stories to rehash later (such as Mike Laughlin locking his keys in his car (while it was running) and having to call triple A just 15 minutes before Ryan was due to show up).
And of course we had the fun of putting all the pieces together afterwards and letting Ryan connect the dots as to how this was all pulled off. All the usual, ahhh, that makes sense now! Including my seemingly innocent Surprise Thoughts for Thursday post.
Fun, fun!

Thanks to everyone for your help in pulling it off... Tracey for your refrigerator space, Heather for taking my kids of my hands for a bit that morning, Malones for conspiring with me, Ryan and Nicole for coming all that way to celebrate and surprise with us, Laughlins for coming out to be here, and everyone who was there to help set up (and last minute grocery store runs) for the party. I couldn't have pulled it off without you! And to everyone who came to party with us!! Obviously we wouldn't have had a party without you!! We really did have so much fun and we were so glad to have you with us! I think it's safe to say it's one Ryan will remember for awhile!

And I'm done with surprises. Until next year I'm sure.