Happy 40th!

Guess who turns 40 this month??? It's Mike!!!

Guess who planned an awesome surprise party that totally caught him off guard???  It's me!!!

Guess who forgot the camera????  That was me too!

So, hopefully I can get some pictures from my sister in law tonight to add to this post, or you could check out the video clip Tyler posted on my face book page. But, in the meantime, here is how it all came to be!

I work with some Tongan ladies whose family provides Hawaiian entertainment for parties etc, as a way to make extra money.  I have heard lots of good things about their performances, so I decided to hire them as the entertainment.  There were many options available, in the end I just said "this is my budget, what can I get for this?"

We ended up with a band, singers, and female dancers. It was a bonus that they didn't want payment until after the performance.... Mike is such a budget freak and I had no idea how I was going to get that much money out of the budget without him asking questions...  I was totally expecting the third degree over the $25 charge to reserve the park.  Luckily, he thought it was a utility bill and didn't think twice about it. 

I hired the dancers, I reserved the park, I started picking up Hawaiian decorations and planning the guest list.

I waited patiently for him to leave his work email up so I could hastily write down the email addresses of his co-workers to email from my email account.

It was all going nicely, and then Mike picked up some contract work to do in the evenings.  This had the potential to ruin everything - I imagined a conference call or a deadline conflicting with the party.

I needed a plan to guarantee his night would be left open.....  then I remembered a few weeks ago we had discussed taking a concealed weapons permit class with his sisters and their husbands.  Andrew said he knew someone who would teach the class at one of our houses.

I called Andrew, who called Mike with the fake date and time of our class, and in no time, Mike had added to our calendar a concealed weapons permit class for Wednesday June 12th at 7 pm.  PERFECT!  I now had a plan for keeping his night free, and a reason we all needed to get in the car just prior to 7pm!

As the party got closer, I realized I was going to need the whole day to get things ready and to bake multiple batches of brownies and cookies.  The only problem is that Mike usually comes home for lunch because he works so close.  Sometimes he stays a long time, or works from home for a little while before going back.  Normally I think it is nice that technology allows for him to do this, but I knew it would only cause me to be anxious on Wednesday.

So, I emailed his co-workers and ask if they could invite him to go to lunch that day so he wouldn't come home.  They were happy to help out, and even decided to have Hawaiian shirt day that day to go along with the Hawaiian theme for the night.  I thought that was hilarious!

An hour before the party, I was trying to stay calm as I waited for the final hour to pass.  I knew all our siblings and parents were at the park setting up food and decorations, and that the performers were probably there as well.  Deryn and Jansyn and I had discussed earlied that after dinner we would play a card game to pass the time until it was time to go.
Everyone appeared to be calm and no one "spilled the beans!" 

At one point it became very windy, and Deryn and I exchanged worried looks as we saw our neighbors pool chairs blow across their yard like tumble weeds.  Luckily the wind died down just before 7 pm.

We got in the car to head to the park.  The park is in the opposite direction of Stephanie and Andrews house, so I made the excuse that I needed to drop some scout papers off at the McDougal's house, which is across from the park.

As we pulled into the park, Mike suddenly said, "Hey, is that my mom?  That looks like my mom."

And I said, "Why yes it does"

Then realization must have hit because he said, " Oh no, I thought I was getting out of this.  Are there ward people here?  Did you invite ward people?"

"Yes, I said, "and work people too."

As we got out of the car everyone sang Happy Birthday, and we began mingling and visiting.

Mike later told me his first thought when he saw the band was, "Oh no!  There is a band.  I hope we are not dancing..."

Ha Ha Ha!  I thought about asking them not to call him up to dance, but changed my mind.  He got to participate in many dances ... and I did as well.


It was a great night filled with music, laughter, dancing, friends, and family.  He was, however, very disappointed about missing the concealed weapons class and kept saying, "but I really want to take that class.  We still need to take that class"  He even texted Andrew during the party (who ended up out of town for work) to tell him he still wanted to take the class.
 The best part was towards the end they had the men come forward to learn a war dance/chant.  Part way into the dance, the man leading the dance had a sudden coughing fit.  The rest of the men, who were all following his lead as they were learning the dance started coughing too - then one of them said, "Wait is that part of the dance?"  The dance leader shook his head and said, "No, I need a drink"
FUNNY!
He got a drink and they started again - this time without the coughing!

That is twice I have got him!  Two surprise parties and he didn't see it coming either time!

Happy Birthday Mike!