My husband turned 40 recently, a fact that I'm pretty sure he'll be glad I'm sharing with the Internet.
A few months before The Big Birthday, my mother-in-law told me that she and my father-in-law wanted to come surprise Bill for his birthday. The plan was to tell Bill we were having dinner with our friends at our favorite local special-occasion place, but then when we got there our actual dinner companions would be his parents!
Now, let me pause here and say something about my ability to keep secrets. I am an excellent secret-keeper. You tell me your secret about an Important Life Issue, and I will understand the importance of keeping it a secret and not tell a soul.
And of course when it comes to fun secrets, I would never spoil a surprise.
Or at least, not intentionally.
The trouble is, although I try my very hardest to keep secrets, I also tend to obsess about things to the point that the obsession sometimes takes over my rational thoughts.
So, when my in-laws were coming to visit for the weekend, I was laser-focused on getting the house clean and procuring groceries for the guests, and it was so so so hard not to accidentally blurt out something like, "Come on, pick your socks off the floor, your parents are coming!"
But, I'm proud to say, I held it together. Even when I had to say things like, "I'm cleaning the house because a babysitter is coming," and, "I bought four bags of Pop Chips because you never know when Aldi will stop carrying them."
And, after a lot of lying on my part, Bill's parents finally came to the restaurant. Bill was legitimately surprised, which is always so fun. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the moment of surprise because I'm not that together, so you can just imagine what a surprised person would look like.
Like this random baby I found on the Internet, but with more clothing.
So, it was a fun surprise and a delicious dinner, and Bill got his birthday cake:
That picture makes it look like he's eating with his hands, but I assure you he used a fork. Unlike with his first birthday cake:
Apparently in the 1970s babies and dogs ate out of the same type of bowl.
A very key element of the surprise was that Nathan also didn't know anything about his grandparents' visit, because children are horrible secret-keepers. So Grandma and Grandpa were a surprise for Nathan, too.
We enjoyed a fun weekend with our guests. On Saturday we went to Legoland Discovery Center.
Nathan, mother-in-law Diana, and me at Lego Navy Pier. It's better than regular Navy Pier.
Bill, Nathan, and father-in-law Walt in the Lego jungle. Nathan looks a bit like a monkey himself.
More Lego Chicago
The indoor playground, God's gift to everyone
This is where you build a vehicle and launch it down some ramps. I built an awesome purple and pink one that got destroyed on the ramp.
Legobama 2012!
Then, in the gift shop, my mother-in-law bought me this girly Lego set, because I was saying that our extensive Lego collection really lacks pinks and purples (and kitties!).
The next day was Father's Day, and we had a barbecue in our yard, complete with a birthday cake my mother-in-law and I made, which I somehow lost all the pictures of.
So, all in all, that was a really fun weekend. And a really awesome surprise.
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