One Last Hurrah

 My original plan was to celebrate Brian's birthday with the kids for Family Home Evening on Monday night, but with Brian and I eating so much crazy food last weekend, we decided to wait a few days until the party.  Yesterday afternoon the boys and I baked and decorated a red velvet cake and hid it in the fridge, and I called a few people to set up a surprise party for Brian.  We didn't decide to invite others or to have the party be a surprise until after the cake was done, so I told Alyssa of the plan, hoping that she would keep it a secret.  I didn't tell the boys anything, because I hoped they wouldn't have the time to let the secret slip.  My plan was to send Brian to ballet with Alyssa and have everyone show up while they were gone.  We just invited Brian's side of the family, because I figured that having ten thousand cousins running around wouldn't be as relaxing for him. 

So Brian walked in the door a little earlier than usual, when I was just  putting the cake pans in the dishwasher, and Marcus said, "Happy birthday!"  Then a few minutes later Ethan said, "We made a cake for you."  Luckily, these didn't tip him off to the party, because Brian knew we were going to have cake eventually.

Brian and Alyssa went to ballet, and Brian's parents, Grandma Orton, and Eric showed up at 7:00, just as Alyssa's ballet class was ending.  Everyone parked down the street, and we waited excitedly in the family room, because he would be there, "any minute."

That minute came and went, and then some.  Eric and I kept sneaking to the quiet room (which is what we call our living room) to peak out the front window.  7:20, no car coming up the driveway.  7:25, still no sign of them.

It was just after 7:30 that they finally pulled in to the garage, and we turned out the lights and yelled "Surprise!" as they came in.

Apparently, Alyssa told Brian that they needed to drive around for a little while to give time for everyone to show up.  Show up for what?  "Nothing," she answered.  They ended up stopping at FroYo to get a small serving of frozen yogurt with  - wait for it - red velvet cake.

Here's all the party attendees, watching Brian open a present from his parents,

which was a beautiful German something that I can't remember the name of.  It's a wooden nativity scene with an arch above it to hold candles.  Brian's mom found it locally, but was thrilled that it was authentic, complete with the box and certificate of authenticity.  When Brian was reading the certificate to find out where it was made, she said, "Remember going there?"  Well, it's going to fit in nicely with the other German decorations Brian brought home from his mission.  It's beautiful!

This is Brian pretending to blow out the candle that he just extinguished, because the picture of the actual event was incredibly blurry.  With the cake, we sacrificed beauty for taste quality, because we substituted the crisco for butter.  The frosting slid down the sides of the cake and lumped at the bottom, spreading the brown trim.  It not might have looked like much, but it was sooooo yummy.