Surprise!


I decided on Valentine's Day of this year that I was going to throw Justin a surprise birthday party this year. He has thrown me a few good ones and has had such thoughtful surprises for me on Valentine's Day for the past 5 years, so I really wanted to get him back (in a good way!). I planned a surprise party well in advance and was so nervous that he was going to find out! I realized just how much useless information I give Justin during the day when I found myself wanting to tell him the most random of things about the party, and then catching and stopping myself because it was a surprise.

A few months ahead of time I planned the decoy by asking Frances to come upstairs and ask Justin and I if she could hold a big Easter Egg hunt and party in our backyard for all of her daycare families. That way we could account for all the cars in front of the house as well as the decorations ahead of time (brilliant, right?). We were due to get irrigation the night before the party but I had told Justin we couldn't get it because of "Frances" party. I had the tables already set up from Adaira's party so I told Justin I was going to leave them out for Frances. It worked fabulously and to get Justin out of the house I bought him an hour long massage for his birthday and told him I scheduled it during Frances' party so he didn't have to deal with all the craziness (he said he was glad I did that because he didn't really want to be there anyway, lol). Well, he came home from his massage and was totally surprised (and confused) about all the people there. I planned for an Easter Egg hunt during the party for all the kids since it was the day before Easter, so it turned out to be a fun time for all.

I feel AWFUL that I forgot to have the camera out when Justin came home, so I don't have any pictures of the actual surprise. Here are few we did take that evening though. Everyone brought some Easter eggs for the hunt, and I had about 100 ready to go as well.




 The kids were pretty crazy with excitement with all the eggs to find.

 Some of the eggs had rubber lizards in them. Dale has no fear of large animals that can kill him, or of heights or anything of real danger, but get a rubber lizard up to him, or a small loud object (he freaks out when Justin turns on his electric knife to cut meat) and he FLIPS out! Melissa was trying to show Dale this yellow lizard and he kept scooting away and saying "Noooo!"
 Then Brett held it out to him from the other direction, you can see evil eye he is giving him here...
 We love having friends and family over, especially with such nice weather!
 David, Marisa and sweet baby Charlotte (hopefully she and Daisy will be best friends some day)
 Don & his wife and one of he and Justin's coworkers.
 Mom & Dad & Daisy
 When you have a jillion kids around the barrel train is always a hit to bring out.

I was pretty proud of myself for pulling it off. Justin really deserved a good party and to know that he is worth the time it takes to plan one. I love him so much and feel lucky to have such a great husband. He isn't afraid to tackle any task or fix anything broken. He is the one who is behind our successful garden and finding our lambs. He is easy to get along with and almost always willing to let me get my way :) He is a great Dad and really tries to remember how much his kids need his attention and time, even when it's hard for him to give. I couldn't (and wouldn't) ask for anything more than what I have in this man here. I love you Justin.

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