Surprise!

I had a little more up my sleeve for my husband's 30th birthday than just a dinner with family. Several weeks in advance I emailed all of our immediate family and asked if we could find a day that we could get together to celebrate without him knowing. Everyone jumped on board right away and the plans were made. I smiled when Stephen's dad called to let him know that he and his wife were planning to come visit us from Pittsburgh for Memorial Day weekend. I nodded, "oh, that will be nice." I also smiled every time family members said "we don't have your gift yet" on the actual birthday weekend. My husband, humble as he is, really believed that being taken out to dinner and a few cards was all he was getting for the big 3-0.

Stephen's dad decided on Saturday afternoon that Benjamin absolutely MUST have a new toy. Stephen came in the house to tell me and I agreed that he really didn't need any toys, but if he's insisting...All the rest of the family showed up to the house while they were out. There was a look of complete shock on Stephen's face when he walked in to see both of our families all gathered in the living room to celebrate with him. This was not an easy feat.

Stephen received some very generous gifts from everyone involved and it was nice to see him receiving a few items not related to parenting. The party certainly wouldn't have been the same without Benjamin though. Benjamin's favorite party activities were playing with balloons and helping daddy open gifts (and of course, mom's chocolate cake!!). He now enjoys wandering around the living room with the balloons and pulling them down from the ceiling.

More came out of this than just a party for Stephen. The past couple weeks have been rough on my health with illnesses and now sporadic fevers accompanied by dizziness and exhaustion. I was saddened that I knew I could only handle family for this event and I even began to question if I could handle that. In the end, I only made the cake. Everything else arrived in the hands of family members. I even had help with cleaning up. It is somewhat encouraging to know that I certainly couldn't have done this on my own, but everyone knew that and they stepped in to help.