I'm feeling like singing a little "My Fair Lady" this morning, because...

"I can't believe I did it, I did it, I did it! I can't believe I did it, but indeed I did!" (If you know the song, go ahead and sing along. If you don't, um…it's really cute.)

I surprised Jonathan for his 26th birthday yesterday! Why 26, you ask? Because I've never been good at planning parties before, and probably won't be in the future, what with the bouncing baby boy and total lack of funds.

It started with a beautiful breakfast at our favorite restaurant. (I actually woke up at three in the morning, I was so excited! For those of you who have had the joy of being near me at Christmas, it was ALMOST that level of anticipation for me!) I had gone ahead early to decorate the booth with banners, streamers and balloons. It was so fun! He said that he hadn't had a decorated time out since he was a kid! Then at ten o'clock, I had arranged for his friend Bob to come over and pick him up to go to the shooting range. He shot a couple of new guns, and had a glorious time. But while he was away...

I had the troops arrive to set up the most spectacular surprise barbecue in the history of surprise barbecues! I had rented out the clubhouse at our condominiums months ago, and made plans for my family to assist me in my deception. First of all, if you know Jonathan, he may be "like a guy" oblivious about a lot of things, but when it comes to his birthday, all of a sudden, he's stinking Hercule Poirot. (Caleb, read "Murder on the Orient Express" someday, son!) But the most important reason I had to drag my family into the whole thing was that our place is so small that I couldn't have possibly gotten everything packed in without outside help!

SO! Between my parents and my sister, all the food/drinks/etc. were brought in, chopped, prepared, and presented on the table. Then everyone else started appearing, and helping to decorate, guide people and whatnot. It was an incredible time – miraculous, really, how everything got done! I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a whole heap o’ folks.

When Jonathan and Bob got back, we were just heading out to the clubhouse when our doorbell rang. It was my friend Lisa from Chicago! I tried to wave her away to the clubhouse, but realized that she had no idea where she was going, and wouldn’t have had time to get there in front of us anyway! So I opened the door and acted like I hadn’t expected to see her. (Lousy acting, I’m sure, since by that point, my nerves were on the EDGE!)

So we get to the clubhouse, and Jonathan says, “Why is my present in here?” I said, “Baby, it’s too big to fit in our place!” So I opened the door and shoved him through. He just stood looking around for a minute, but then everybody yelled SURPRISE and he re-animated. It was really a lot of fun! Anyway, he was genuinely shocked – he had thought I might have some people over, but nothing to that extent.

Plus, with Lisa, he had thought that I was waving away someone else coming to surprise him like Bob had, but that I hadn’t realized it was Lisa! So even THAT worked out!

It was absolutely a riot! Jonathan said it was the best birthday of his life, and the rest of us got to have a great time, too! Not too many people went swimming, but I can understand that. We ended up having a few of our close friends stay pretty darn late, and I fear I crashed pretty badly at the end of the day. I think I may have been just the teensiest bit dehydrated, because then I really fell apart. So Jonny put me to bed, but I was too miserable to sleep for a long time. No more big exciting all day events for me for a while, please! But I wouldn’t have traded this one for ANYTHING!