The Surprise Of The Century

Tomorrow is David's birthday. He will be 24. He is getting old. Just 5 more birthdays and he will have caught up to me. We are not planning anything special. We are tight on money right this minute and we are spending our extra money on car repairs and maintenance. Having two working vehicles is a must.

Of course, that is what we told Catherine for her birthday in September. We told her we were so broke she wasn't even getting presents. Then we bought her Ginny Weasley. She was so surprised. But really, that wasn't the end of it. The Saturday after that, we threw her a surprise party. She had no idea.

We had actually been planning it for weeks. Catherine's friend Brittany helped me pick out invitations on the sly. They were tea cups and when you pulled out the tea bags the party information was on them. That was our theme, a tea party. Catherine's friend Dalia helped me with the guest list.

On the day of the party, while Catherine was at tae kwon do, Carolynn and I cleaned the house. We started the food and got the decorations ready. Catherine's dad sent her a corsage of orchids that came while she was out and we stored it in the refrigerator. When Catherine got home she saw us decorating and getting out the fancy tea set. She thought that we were just having fun. When we lived in San Diego, we often threw ourselves silly parties when we were broke just for us. It was fun. That is what Catherine thought we were doing then. So she joined right in and helped us decorate and make food.

Then she had an idea. Maybe she could invite over a friend. She wanted to invite her friend Robyn. I said sure. Robyn was on my guest list but I didn't know where she lived or how to find her so she never got the invitation. Catherine was happy to invite the one friend and was ready to go get her and start the tea party.

Then she looked out the window as our friends Adrienne and Serenity drove up. She looked confused. Then her friends Dalia and Brittney (and their little sister) came and brought cake pops. (I tried to make some but mine didn't work out to well. Luckily Dalia and Brittney's mom had it covered.) Catherine was so excited. She finally was catching on it was a party for her. She and David went to pick up Robyn. While she was gone 2 more friends showed up. She couldn't believe it when she got back. Later Chris and Sherri came too. The girls played games, ate and drank tea. Catherine got to wear her corsage. They all wore plastic tiaras. They opened presents. Catherine got a lot of cool scrapbooking stuff. It was quite the surprise.