Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Surprise Party (or a million different ways to deceive your husband)

Adam is not a big fan of his birthday. This has always blown my mind, because how can you not love your birthday? Especially at our young ages. I adore my birthday; in fact I call myself a birthday whore. I start the countdown on May 1st (6 days to go!), and celebrate pretty much all month long. When we first started dating, I had to drag his birthday date out of him. I basically wore him down after begging and whining for a few weeks. Adam also never tells any of his coworkers that it is his birthday; he claims he doesn't like the attention. But I always assumed he was just full of a whole bunch of bull hockey, and secretly was jealous of my birthday whoring ways.

I decided I wanted to do something big for him this year. I first thought about throwing a surprise party at the house, but actually that seemed too big. Plus, I happened to have class on that night, and all these people left hanging out in my house while I'm not home, kind of gave me the heebe jeebes. What if they found all the dead bodies in the closet? That would be embarrassing! So I came up with another plan, a surprise lunch party. This would involve a lot of sneaking around on my part.

First, I had to get into contact with some of Adam's friends at work and rat him out, without him knowing. So I combed through all my sent e-mails to Adam (a monumental task since we e-mail each other quick notes a million times a day, our relationship is defined by oppressive codependence), and find some email that I had replied to that he had forwarded to the majority of his coworkers. I told them about how Mr. Cranky Pants doesn't ever tell anyone about his birthday, and that we should have a party for him. So we came up with the plan that on his birthday his coworkers and him would all head out to lunch (as they often do), not saying anything about his birthday, and I would already be there with cake, balloons, and the whole nine yards.

I sat on this information for over a week, and that nearly killed me. It's hard to keep this big mouth closed. I really played it up as well. I told him I was disappointed about having to put off our planned birthday celebration (a home cooked meal) for a day because I had class. I then had to contact Adam's mother to get a recipe for his favorite cake (chocolate with peanut butter icing). But I had told Adam I wouldn't have time to pull off, so I wasn't going to bake him a cake at all. I lied about not being able to buy him a birthday present, when I had already bought him an awesome present. And I knew Adam would never catch on to the surprise party, because I can be painfully shy. He would never imagine I would contact his coworkers and his family.

On the morning of his birthday, I woke up extremely early and went shopping for birthday supplies. I then started baking the cake at 9. That is the earliest I've ever baked a cake in my life. I must be the messiest baker in the world, because by the time I was done I had chocolate on the floor, wall, electrical outlets, and even in my hair. And honest to Bob I don't know how that happened. I then found out that homemade peanut butter icing is labor intensive and nerve-wracking. It takes a really long time to mix powdered sugar and peanut butter together! You know why? Because peanut butter is sticky, so if you use an electronic mixer IT STICKS TO IT. So I had to spend a half hour hand mixing that sucker.

When it was time to go to the restaurant, I packed everything up, and then parked a good mile away from the pizza place because I was scared he would see my car. After I set everything up, I sat in my seat just freaking the eff out. My brain doesn't recognize the difference between excitement and anxiety. So instead of being excited, I stared at my watch feeling like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. Finally they arrived and I hid in the corner of the room as they approached. I assumed everyone would automatically head to the table with the balloons, but no they were walking straight towards me, and TALKING to me LOUDLY. I started frantically pointing to the table, and thank Bob my husband is so clueless because he never saw me standing there in my bright pink shirt!

I snuck up on him from behind (that’s what she said), and I think it took him a while to put it all together because he kept starring at me like I was a mirage. A smoking hot mirage, but still a mirage. We had such fun, and I could tell that Adam was really happy. At the end of the meal, the waitress brought out the cake (the second surprise), and I made him blow out his candles like he was a kid. I then presented him with a note. I told him that just because stupid UPS didn't care about his birthday, didn't mean he didn't get to know about his gift. I then drew a picture of a guitar that looked slightly like a snowman with a railroad track going over it. Because I got him Rock Band 2!

I have been talking Adam out of getting Rock Band 2 for over a year now, because I felt it wasn't something we really needed.  So you can imagine his shock that I actually bought it for him. We've been playing Rock Band some with friends now. I'm always the vocalist, Adam is on drums, Luther is on guitar, and Sarah is the subwoofer (Get it, our dog is the subwoofer!)

It really was a special day, and I'm glad I pulled it off. Later that day he sent me an e-mail that said, "I literally am in awe of everything you’ve done for me today. If I had had any idea pretending to not like my birthday would get me all this, I’d have done it a long time ago. As it is, it really has been the best birthday I’ve ever had, and it was because of you. You treat me better then I deserve, maybe, but I am grateful. I love you so much, and I hope Rock Band doesn’t come between us…."

Now that Adam's Birthday is over we can get back to the most important things in life like... planning for my birthday!


4 comments:

  1. What fun! I have never had a surprise birthday party....but being my birthday is Christmas day, it would difficult to pull that off. :)

    Do you have big doin's planned for your special day?

    ReplyDelete
  2. that is SO CUTE! how fun! you are the best wife ever! and you have given me some awesome gift ideas for curt! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow i read all the way down and i admire what you've done to make him like and love his birthday! it was fun and i know how touching it was for your husband! really sweet of you! got a medal for you, you're the best!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That cake sounds delicious. You are such a good wifey! I don't know that I could have pulled that off. Rock Band is awesome too! I would love to see a video of you guys rocking out.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments, and I always read my comments. But sometimes I make a mental note to go comment back on your blog, and then forget to (Even if I’m an avid read of your blog, whoops). Since I'm so bad about this, I will mostly reply to comments in my comment section, so please check back! If you have something pressing to talk to me about you can e-mail me at brittanyervin86@yahoo.com.
Britt

 

Design by Peachy Keen Design