The Surprise Went Off Without A Hitch!

Dane's surprise party was great.

You should've seen all these kids at the playground after school yesterday, totally in cahoots on the whole surprise and not spoiling it a bit.

I gathered a few of them at a time out there to tell them Dane still had no idea why they had all miraculously been able to stay after school and play, and that we were going to come together in a few minutes to blindfold Dane and hop in cars to go to Yogurt Hut. Then the kids would say cute things like "Oh, cool! We can tell him stuff like 'We're passing your house now, Dane,' or 'We're at the airport now, Dane,' [and so on and so on] to fool him when we drive him away."

The cousins' van and a car of 3 boys got to Yogurt Hut first and they all hid behind the pool table and the air hockey table. Four other boys then walked a blindfolded Dane from street parking, up the stairs, telling him we were at the dump.

When we got him upstairs we took off his blindfold and everyone jumped up and yelled "Surprise!"

Then we heard several rounds of "Thriller," "Beat It," "Boom Boom Pow" and "Firefly" on the karaoke machine as kids ate pizza, ate their yogurt sundaes, played pool, foosball, air hockey, darts, and board games.

It was a super fun time, a little bit exhausting for a parent, but a great terrific fabulous birthday for a 10-year-old boy.

Will post pictures when I recover. They'll probably just get tacked on to the end of this blog, so come back in a day or so.

Now Mick and I are off to volunteer at the MARA fundraiser, an auction benefitting the Mt. A Racing team...

(I've got 400 words of my short story started for the NYC Flash Fiction contest. Lots of work left for late tonight and all day tomorrow.)

Attempting the Impossible: Surprise!

Today I'm attempting the impossible: a surprise birthday party for my ten-year-old. I can't wait to see if it works.

I let all the parents know that if it turns out to be an un-surprise, there'll be no hard feelings. I just thought it'd be really fun to try.

So far, this is the plan:

Dane's pals and Aubs and the cousins will meet us after school at the playground. The kids know they can tell Dane they've been allowed to play with him after school. And then we'll pile them all into vans and drive them to Yogurt Hut for two hours of yogurt sundaes, pizza, foosball, darts, air hockey, pool, and karaoke! (I've rented the room so 12 kids and several adults can have the joint to ourselves.)

After that, some kids are getting picked up, and we'll take the rest home.

Two of Dane's best buddies have also been invited to stay for an overnighter, where hopefully I can drum up How to Train Your Dragon to follow some outdoor play and Legos.

Dane's birthday's not until Tuesday, and just this morning he was seriously trying to figure out with Mick what he could do for his party ("Maybe bowling?") and who he'd invite (everyone we've got coming today!).

The only glitch is that I don't really have that moment planned when he figures out what we're up to and we all yell "Surpise!"

Woops.

I have a feeling it'll pan out just perfectly though.