Home of the Four Trans

OK, how did this happen? How did Loi turn 30?!?!?! That means I’ll be 30, soon. Can’t believe how quickly time flies.

Loi’s younger sister and I threw a “surprise” bash for him this past Friday, that turned out to be not so “Surprise!” after all. One of his friends accidentally slipped when he called our house to talk to me, but got Loi on the phone instead (friend later confessed that he had “failed the mission”). All week, Loi pretended not to know, but I knew he knew because I found the e-vite to his party on my email had been opened (not by me). Regardless, I continued about with the food ordering, and pretended that I didn’t know that he knew. Exhausting, right?

Come the day of, I was totally unprepared. I couldn’t figure a way to leave the house without abandoning him with the 2 boys and their neediness (Nathan wanted to be played with, Justin needed to be fed, bathed, etc…typical day). He also had to work from home. Finally, close to 3PM, as Nathan was going down for his nap, I started acting exhausted, like I needed to get out of the house STAT before I’d go CRAZY, told him I needed to go shopping as a relief. Without any hesitation, he let me go. Donned with disheveled hair and Justin’s leftover pureed sweet potatoes on my dress, I grabbed my purse and made a run for it.

Of course, 3PM on a Friday is rush hour traffic time. Perfect. I had two stops to make and needed to report back to party central by at least 5PM to set up the birthday banner, decorations, tables, and chairs. Not to mention, I had some items on the menu that still needed preparation. I did not get to party central until 5:30PM. By the time I carried the food in from the car (with the help of our wonderful nephew. Hi, Andrew!), it was already 5:45PM. The phone started ringing. Guests were showing up at the gate. Crap. I am the worst party planner ever!, I thought to myself. I can plan parties for hundreds of people, but not for my one husband’s 30th birthday.

The bright side was there were actually going to be people at this party (yes! I got one thing right.). Initially to help with the set-up, but they later were allowed to join in the fun, too! The early birds were assigned tasks such as setting up the tables and fold out chairs, putting up the banner/decor, making an ice run (thanks Rusty, Randy, Tom, Anh, Joe, Bailey, Timmy, Leanne, Phuoc, Johnna…did I miss anyone?). Organized, right? As I realized there were many hands on board to assist, I left to pick up Loi from our house.

Got home and no one was ready…burned another 20 minutes packing the diaper bag and dressing the kids before we were all actually loaded into the car to go.

“Where are you?,” texted his younger sister. “Almost here?”

30 minutes later, which would make a total of 80 minutes since I left party central to pick up Loi, we made it through the gate leading to party central. His friends’ familiar cars gave it away, though, as we drove down the street. He called me out, at which point, I still continued to pretend like I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about.

As we entered through the front doors, there stood his crew of people who hollered, “SURPRISE!” Good times.

Loi was actually surprised. He did not expect the party to be held at party central, but at our house. He also did not expect as many people to show up.

The remainder of the evening was spent with semi cold food (as we were missing parts for the food warmers, so we didn’t keep the food warm. Outside. At night.), drinks (all prepared for that! Makes everything all better), conversation, and some friendly banter.

The most memorable moment of the night for Loi? His 15 year nephew DJ’ing for him. That made him feel old. He told me that he used to do that. Time flies!

Happy birthday, Babe!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 2:10 am and is filed under Birthdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.