I have never been the recipient of a surprise birthday party, but the weekend prior to my birthday this year was without a doubt one of the biggest surprises of my life.
It all started several weeks ago when Lukas had asked if he could have some friends over on Saturday January 14. I was actually planning on being away on Friday night, but land on returning home during the evening of his party so I agreed to allow him to have his get together with friends. As I was driving home on that Saturday evening from Chicago, I called him to make sure everything at the Lodge was ready for his party of 7 to 10 friends and he assured me that everything was fine. However, upon arriving at the end of my driveway, I noticed that his small party was much much larger than I anticipated. It turned out there were about 50 cars in the drive including a conversion van that had slid off the drive just after the driveway bridge making it very difficult to pass!
As I pulled up the drive, very irritated with the fact that I had no place to park my own car, I managed to get out and walk into the Lodge to find out from Luke what the heck was going on. It was only then that I was greeted by most of my children, all the invited guests (including several college friends and their families), a live band, two kegs of beer and catered food for a once-in-a-lifetime surprise birthday party. I’m 50, by the way, not really wanting to advertise that.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures to share since I wasn’t prepared with a camera and also I was busy socializing and enjoying the party. However, a few of the guests were able to provide some of the pictures that they took and we even had a professional photo booth on hand capturing festive portraits of everyone there.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone that came and for all the gifts I received!
