I had kept the party a secret for what seemed like FOREVER. I had even chosen NOT to tell my kids. I didn't want to burden them with keeping the secret and also feared that something might slip out. (I was having a hard enough time myself. I wanted to tell Jason about my day, all the things I had been doing, but couldn't.)
I had made it to the very last week of the party. So far so good, on the secret UNTIL....
Monday, Amber asked Rylee if she could babysit for the party on Friday. Rylee said, "What party?" Oops, now Rylee knew, but I still felt ok about it. I thought that out of anyone, she would be the one I could trust the most.
Tuesday, Abree caught me paint-splattering the sheets in the back yard. She asked, "What are you doing that for?" I played dumb and said something vague. Then she said, "Are they for Dad's 80's party?" What? How did she know about that? When I asked her what she was talking about she said, "Oh yeah, Shhhhhh, it's a secret." I was hoping she was a trust-worthy secret keeper. She had actually seen the most and hadn't said much up to this point, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Wednesday, Treyson found a leather jacket (for an 80's costume) and brought it into Jason and I. He asked, "Did Grandpa Waite leave his jacket here?" It caught me so off-guard, that I didn't respond very well. I got upset and said, "Go put that away! Why are you getting into stuff?!" --Later I realized I should have just went with the Grandpa Waite story and acted normal. -- I said to Treyson, "If you seen anything out of place or something that seems weird, don't say anything! There is a surprise and I will tell you about it later."
Thursday, I had the kids do their Saturday chores after school (because we had company coming and because I knew we would be busy during the weekend). They questioned it at first, but I continued with the vague answers and promised to tell them why later. That evening, right in front of Jason Taylee said, "I know you're making us do chores... because Krissi is coming!" Jason didn't act like he had heard her, so I pulled her aside and let her in on the surprise and swore her to secrecy.
That night, Treyson came into our bedroom for scripture and prayer. He said, "Mom, so what's this surprise you keep talking about? Tell me what it is, please?" I saw the look on Rylee's face and the glances between the girls, but this time I kept my cool and said, "Oh, you want a treat?" (always a good distraction for Treyson). Yes, of course he wanted a treat. So I gave them all a treat under the pretense of having done their chores. Whew, secret still intact.
Friday, the day of the party, we had people coming in from out-of-town. Krissi and Steve hung out with me during the day and then I dropped them off at the Stoker's home.
Some of Jason's family were staying in a hotel , but my sister-in-law and 2 nieces were to stay with us, that night (after Jason knew what was going on). Somehow we had to figure out how Catie (niece) was going to be at our house, while her mom was at the party. We made a plan for Catie to come over BEFORE Jason got home from work. She was instructed to "hide" upstairs. I told my kids to act "normal". I also told the girls to hide Catie in their bedroom, because Jason wouldn't have a reason to go in there, before going to his X-box party. Somehow the lines of communication were crossed and the "bedroom hideout" was not received, so Catie was sitting in the family room watching a movie, when Jason came in to get his X-box packed up for the night.
Catie said, "I saw him coming and thought, 'If he doesn't turn on the light, I think I'll be ok..and then he turned on the light!'" He commented on the movie she was watching and then turned to get his X-box gathered. As his back was to her, she slipped out of the room.
Abree came down to me panicked, "Mom, dad saw Catie Jo!!!" What?!! I was so bummed that the secret had been kept for so long, but now had been blown an hour before the party. Oh well. What could I do about it now? I waited to hear from Jason. If he had seen Catie, I thought he'd come down and ask me what was going on. I never heard from him.
Finally, I went upstairs and found Catie and Rylee talking in her room. I said, "Did he see you or not?" Catie looked at me and shrugged, "I thought he saw me. He looked right at me and asked about the movie I was watching, but then I snuck out."
Hmmmm. Maybe the cover hadn't been blown after all? Time would tell.
We all went about things as normally as possible. We ate dinner, I curled my hair and got ready, Jason kept gathering his stuff and puttering around.
Finally, it was close to time and Jason was ready to go. I made one last-ditch effort to delay just a few more minutes, by going into the bathroom. (I had received some calls asking about the address or directions. I wanted to make sure everyone had, enough time to gather and that we would arrive at a good time.)
I called Krissi to let her know that we were on our way. I got her voice mail and left a dumb message. She called me back, as Jason and I were driving to the Stoker's. She asked me to give her a code word, like "2 minutes" or "2 miles away". I couldn't think of anything good to say, so I just kept saying "two". Our conversation had to have sounded weird. When I hung up, Jason asked, "Who was that?" "Krissi." "What did she want?" I said, "She was telling me about a sale on chicken nuggets at Costco" (because she had, earlier in the day). He probably thought I was acting weird, but dismissed it.
We pulled up to the Stoker's home. I had Jason park in the driveway because I would be there "just for a minute, while I picked up Marianne for the movie". We walked up to the door and rang the bell. Brek answered and said, "Hi Jason! Are you ready?".......
"SURPRISE!"
The rest of the story......
What we found out later, was that as soon as Catie snuck out, Taylee slid into her place on the couch and continued talking to Jason as if she were there the whole time. SNEAKY!
Jason said that if he would have thought about it, he had just seen Taylee on the computer downstairs, so how could she have also been on the couch upstairs? He WASN'T thinking about it... just the X-box party he was about to go to. He totally thought that it was Taylee on the couch the whole time. :)
Guests gathered....
...and waited...
...and waited for Jason and I to arrive.
Brek answered the door and said, "Hi Jason! Are you ready?"
"SURPRISE!"
I was so happy that it all worked out. Whew.
Do you identify with any of these.... sadly I do.
As the guests entered, they grabbed a name tag and put their 80's photo on the "Wall of Shame".
We had a few guests sign Jason's poster, but we didn't get everyone.
"Wall of Shame"- Check out that 80's style!
Guests voted for the best 80's costumes.
We ate food, listened to 80's music ....
and then went around the room and introduced ourselves and said how we knew Jason.
We also said something about Jason; our first impression, something we liked about him or a story.
On the menu:
lots of candy...
and Pac-Man cupcakes.
Costco saved the day.... after the cool Rubik's cube cake failed.
We sang Happy Birthday and Jason made a wish.... and then couldn't blow out the candle because it was a sparkler.
