Steve turned 40 this year, so of course we had to have a surprise party. I spent about 3 weeks planning the whole thing with my good friend Justine. We decorated the house with 40s and hung a banner outside the house on his actual birthday. Then, on the following Saturday when Steve left to coach Joshua's baskeball game, we brought in Dickey's barbeque, set-up the house for the party, put out balloons, candy party favors and a "Stevie-tini" drink station. It took A LOT of planning, but we pulled it off. He was definitely surprised and we had a lot of fun!!
Steve came home from a business trip to New York to the house decorated. We had dinner and cake and he got a new chain saw and NBA2010 video game from us for his birthday.
SURPRISE!!
The funniest part about this whole thing was that I needed to call on Thomas's acting skills. About 15 minutes before it was time for us all to leave for Joshua's basketball game, I told Thomas about the party. (I can't tell him or Charles anything too soon if it is a secret. They can't keep them.) So I told Thomas he needed to get in bed and pretend he was sick so that we had an excuse to stay behind. He crawled into bed, turned the lights off and when Steve went to check on him, he moaned and groaned about a stomach ache. He totally fooled Steve. Quite the actor that kid is!!
The food was really good!!
And the cake was too, so they said!
We had fun making fun of Steve for all the fruity drinks he likes to order. We created a "Stevie-tini" in his honor for the night. Justine and I had a taste test one morning while the kids were at school to make sure we had the mix just right. It was a pomegranate martini, and it was quite tasty. Most of the guests really enjoyed them!!
I also put together a picture slide-show of Steve's life which was really fun and quite the tear jerker. Especially all the pictures of him and the boys when they were babies. And these chocolates were spread around for the guests as party favors. They have Steve's face on them from when he was about 8 years old and his face today. It's amazing how much Thomas looks like he did when he was young.
The boys felt really special being the only kids at the party and loved being in the slide-show. Charles got so excited when I told him we were having a surprise party that he started running around the house asking me what he could do to help. He said "this is my first surprise party!" It was really cute! They were all three so well behaved and just mixed right in with the adults. When they got bored with the party, they went upstairs and watched a movie.
Happy Birthday Steve!!
