Friday night, Ted said he wasn’t too hungry, and asked how I’d feel about eating dinner a little later than usual. Fine, I was reading a book, so I didn’t care. We had a light supper around 7:30 and, just as we were finishing, the doorbell rang. I couldn’t imagine who would be at our door at nearly 8:00 pm on a Friday night–a driver with a broken-down car? a salesman? a candidate for Tuesday’s election? I could see a young-looking man and some other figures through the blown glass in our front door, so I decided it must be some high school kids with a fund-raising plea. I opened the door and saw . . . my kids! They had been working with Ted to plan a surprise birthday party for me. I didn’t have a clue and almost started crying, so I reached for Sefton and snuggled my face into him.
Just the day before, Katie texted me a picture of Sefton and I texted back that he lives too far away from us. The next day, she brought him here.
Jeff and Thom scheduled flights to arrive in St. Louis within minutes of each other around 6:00 pm. Kathy and Annette arrived at Kari’s house in the late afternoon, and the plan was for the girls to pick up the boys at the airport, then come to the house to surprise me, after which we’d all go out for pizza. (That’s why Ted was supposedly not very hungry at dinner time.) Unfortunately, Jeff’s plane had hydraulic problems and he was delayed almost three hours. The girls got hungry and decided to eat. (Messages between them, Jeff, and Ted that I knew nothing about led to Ted’s and my late, light dinner.) Ted and Thom picked Jeff up at the airport around 9:00 pm.
The kids and Ted apparently exchanged many emails/texts/whatever since late February to plan all this. The first suggestion was to get together on my birthday weekend, but Ted and I were in Key West. Not exactly hardship duty, and I was thrilled to have a destination birthday. I had birthday phone calls from all the kids and not a single person gave away the slightest hint that anything like this was in process. Everything was planned so that I could have a stress-free weekend to celebrate. Kathy and Kari took care of the food preparation, and Kari hosted lunches at her house, as well as providing sleeping accommodations for Kathy and Annette. What an awesome, loving family I have! This was one of those times a friend of mine described as “pearls” in your family’s life.
Sefton was happy to see his Grandpa too.
Saturday morning included a trip to Paul’s Donuts. Sefton didn’t seem to mind that his was a toy.
Three of my favorite boys: Sky, Teddy, and Dylan. Sky is almost as tall as I am.
As the hostess, I usually go through the buffet line last, but as the birthday girl, I was ordered to go first. It felt a little weird.
When my plate was filled, I thought the food was so pretty, I took a picture of it.
Then I saw Dylan’s plate. You can tell by the ring of green beans that he is far more artistic and more skilled at presentation than I am. (And he likes bread!)
After dinner, there were birthday gifts to be opened.
Naturally, there was Vienna Torte–my favorite dessert–for my birthday cake.
Laralee’s sister is celebrating a milestone birthday in Arizona this week, so she and Jeff decided that Jeff would come to my party and she’ll go to her sister’s. Alex is in Peru; Kyra is at BYU; Zack stayed home with La; and Julian was dog-sitting. Dean spent some of the weekend with us, but couldn’t be here for the official birthday dinner. Annette’s son, Ben, lives in the St. Louis area now, so he and his girlfriend joined us for some of the festivities, but not this dinner. The miracle is that all four of our children, representing all four families, could be with us at the same time!
Here we are–all four of our children present.
Ted and I had pizza (delayed from Friday evening?) with Thom and Katie before we took them to the airport.
We are regular customers at this restaurant. When they found out it was my birthday, the staff gave me a gift. They “wrapped” it in a plastic cup and all the servers and both managers on duty signed the cup with birthday wishes for me.
Shocking! It’s a glass with the restaurant logo imprinted on it!
On Sunday, Jeff left on a morning flight; Kathy and Annette left after lunch; Thom, Katie, and Sefton left after our pizza dinner. I’ll bet the small, dark-colored duffle bag Thom is pulling holds his and Katie’s stuff, leaving the large plaid suitcase, the backpack, and the car seat for Sefton.
When everyone was gone, Ted and I relaxed outside at our firebowl. The amazing, awesome, wonderful, fantastic weekend was over, but I’ll never forget it.