Surprise

Saturday was right up there with some of the best birthdays I have ever had - and I have had 25 of them. But it didn't seem to be shaping up that way earlier in the day. The plan was to go to lunch, then go to Ryan's church basketball game, go home, get ready and go to a movie that night. I didn't admit it at the time, but it kind of seemed like a ho-hum birthday.

But, we had a good lunch, and though Ryan's game started an hour late, his team won so we had something to celebrate. We got home and I decided that I didn't want to go to a movie but Ryan insisted so we set off to drop Ethan off at my friend Julie's house. I was secretly cursing Ryan for not allowing me to do what I wanted on my own birthday when we opened Julie's front door and almost fell back off the steps. There, screaming "Surprise!" in Julie's living room were so many of my good friends. I'll admit, I started to cry at first, but I don't know that I could have better expressed my combined shock and happiness in any other way.

The party had a Kelly's Office Birthday theme (or non-theme, I guess), complete with the above sign, underinflated black balloons and a completely white cake. They even gave me the choice of an hour nap or an hour of TV. I think I would have taken more photos of all of the delicious food and hilarious stuff had I not been so shocked by it all.

Grand-schemer Julie had several break-downs and tense moments before and after this insanely awesome party, but she has no idea how much it all meant to me. Thanks Julie!

Thanks so much to all of my wonderful friends.