Surprise Party

Yesterday we had a surprise party for one of our friends.  Her husband planned it but a bunch of us girls were responsible for keeping her away from home for most of the day.  There were some key elements to pulling this off:

1. Get together the night before so she thinks nothing will go on two nights in a row.  Stay out until 2:00 AM.
2. Make the party beans when you get home at 2:15 AM.
3. Laugh uncontrollably while doing this with your partner in crime (one of the other girls) because  you measure by the handful and make too many beans for the crock pot but ‘make them fit’.
4. Go to bed at 3:00 AM.
5. Get up at 6:00 AM to accompany one of the girls because she has to do 5 hair-dos for a wedding.
6. Fall asleep at her client’s house in the chair….twice….one time jerking awake as you had a dream you were falling.
7. Get to pedicure appointment around 9:30 to meet up with the other 7 girls.
8. Allow a very tiny woman to do your toenails and give you a leg ‘massage’.  I use the term massage loosely as I think she’s a dominatrix at her second job.
9. Laugh the entire time at the salon because we’re a bunch that thinks most everything is funny.
10. Go to the grocery store and buy $130 worth of food for lunch at my house.  Tip:  Don’t go to the grocery store hungry and thirsty with someone else who is hungry and thirsty.
11. Spend an hour or so having lunch and drinks.  Tip:  Always have a house that’s presentable in case you decide to invite people over at the last minute.
12. Move the party out to the country to someone else’s house for drinks and haircuts.
13. Start panicking at 3:00 as a group as we’re supposed to have the birthday girl to her house in 30 minutes and we don’t have a story yet.
14. Almost get caught by the birthday girl several times trying to make plans.
15. Husband calls birthday girl saying he’s going to bbq for everyone at their house.  Bring a can of beans. Well, one can of beans, the leftover lunch food and a cooler are packed to make it look legitimate.  Us laughing at one can of beans almost spilled the beans about the party.  We deserve Emmys.
16. Arrive at party an hour and a half late.  But the birthday girl is completely surprised.
17. Eat too much.
18. Look at hilarious pictures of birthday girl and her family, missing the 80s.
19. Drink too much.
20. Talk smart with friends and family.
21. Sit by the ‘fire’.  It was more of an inferno as we had to sit 25 feet away because it was so huge.
22. Watch birthday husband fall head first for no reason into a pile of wood in the dark.
23. Watch husband’s friend ‘check for injuries’ with the light from his cell phone while laughing hysterically.
24. Go inside to use the bathroom and see birthday relative with no pants on.  Seriously, she was undressing with the door of the bedroom open right inside the door from outside!
25. Round up 5 people for the trek home at 11:30 because of the trama of the no pants incident.
26. Laugh all the way home at the stories from the day.
27. Sleep like a baby.

The key to success was a relaxed day, good friends, a little luck and lots of laughs.