This last weekend was Julie's birthday, and unbeknownst to her, we had two big surprises for her. The first was a visit from her sister and mother. Julie started to suspect something was up, because her mom had not spoken with her in a week or more, which is always a sure sign something is up. So Friday evening Julie asked me if her mom was up to something, and I said,
"Why? What did she say?"
Julie says, "Nothing, and that's the problem. When she doesn't talk to me for 10 days, I know something is up."
Me: thinking fast...
"She did call me to make sure you would be around Saturday. She didn't say why. Maybe some special dinner or Elvis stripper is coming."
"What?!?"
"I don't know, Julie. That's what she asked, and I said we'd be home."

About 2 hours later, there was a knock on the door, and in walks Elvis! No, just kidding. In walked Julie's sister and mother! And she was very surprised, and happy. They had a great visit, while I converted the play room into something resembling a guest room, which I clearly could not have made up before hand.


Saturday, the kids were great with the unexpected visitors. We just lazed about the house, and then went into town for a yummy lunch. Somehow, there were pink and purple feathers all around the house by mid day, seemingly from some stray feather boas that the kids adopted. Later that day, I had to run out to get a birthday cake, which secretly included a stop off at Julie's favorite restaurant to ensure the reservations were going OK, and hand off a few balloons to other guests. When I got back, after an hour, and getting a cake should have only been 30 min, I had to explain that the cake decorator misunderstood me, and thought I wanted a cake for Jenny. So they had to scrape the wrong name, make up new frosting, and then write the correct Happy Birthday Julie!


Unbeknownst to me, Julie's mom and sister went out to do a few last minute things when I was out, and Julie got very suspicious something else was going on. I outright lied, and said there was nothing happening, that I knew of. I then made reservations at Julie's favorite restaurant, which happened to coincide with the time I asked everyone to already be there. Yes, I had planned a big surprise birthday dinner for Julie. We had about 25 people there, and about 50 that wished they could have been there.