I've been sneaking around, fibbing and scheming for the past 4ish months... All for a good cause! My boyfriend Nick turned 30 this past weekend so we threw him a surprise 30th birthday fiesta at my parents house.
Planning started way back at the end of April with contact collecting and evites. With such early planning, you'd think I was planning a wedding! I wanted to begin early to give out of town friends and family an opportunity to plan a trip out for Nick.
Since Nick works on Sundays, those were my sneak around and party plan days. I spent hours contacting people, printing pictures, and having secret family meetings in between all of my other Sunday chores. Then, when Nick came home and it seemed like I hadn't done much… I'd have to tell him that the day got away from me, man I wish there were more hours in a day to get things done (tehehe)!!
It took an army of people to help me pull this surprise off. My brother took charge of lighting and hung lines from my parents house to the far end of their backyard. He also got creative with white lanterns and lit them up with LEDs! My parents allowed me to use their basement to stash decorations and beverages, and donated a great deal of time, money and creativity in creating a delicious Mexican spread. Nicks parents and brother supported me by giving me all of the names and contacts, and an abundance of amazing pictures of Nick through the year. Besides our families, so many other people had a hand in helping this party come to life!
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| While everyone was waiting for us to come around the corner |
A BIG GINORMOUS THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAD A HAND IN PLANING, AND ATTENDED TO CELEBRATE NICK!!!!
I told Nick a few months before the party the he need to take a few days off from work because I was taking him on a weekend get away. The only clue I gave him was that we weren't leaving the state. I gave him a list of things to pack, and did my own packing too. The whole time I was giggling in my head, and couldn't believe I was actually packing a fake vacation bag.
I also told him that the weekend would be a "series of adventures" and the first adventure might give away what the rest of the weekend looked like, so he had to be blindfolded. He wasn't too thrilled about that. I drove out of my way to get to my parents house so that he wasn't sure where we were. I took a few extra turns here and there, and avoided my blinker on occasion so that he wasn't too aware that I was exiting and changing lanes.
As we got closer, he got a little more nervous…as did I. I felt like I was in a dream, and when I slipped and told him that, I followed up with "because of my cold, my head is so foggy, I feel like I'm dreaming!" haha!! We pulled up to my parents driveway and I was sure he would figure out where he was at that point. We walked down the gravel path on their side yard to the sound of cows mooing and chickens clucking, my dad planned that one…so creative, of course we would go hang out at a farm for his 30th! I've never felt the sort of emotion I felt when I was leading him towards his friends and family. I was nervous as all h*** for so many reasons (I didn't want the surprise to be blown, I was meeting a few of his best friends for the first time, all eyes were on us, etc…), I was laughing because Nick was freaking out slightly and would hardly move so I was dragging him along, and I was tearing up with joy and appreciation for the amount of love and support I was seeing for the guy that I LOVE!
Finally I couldn't handle it any more so I allowed him to take off his blindfold, as everyone yelled SURPRISE!
I think he was genuinely surprised, especially because of the combination of faces!! His brother and dad flew out from South Dakota, some of his best friends drove out--The Erfmans, The Heisingers, and James-- and our closest friends and family from the area came too!
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| Hugs all around!! |
We all ate, drank, played yard games, had delicious cake thanks to mama Erfman, and even took out some aggression on a candy/shooter filled piñata!
Overall, I think the party was a success. It was my gift to Nick to plan this event, and I think no one deserves the love and recognition more. He is an amazing person in so many peoples lives, and I'm the lucky one to have fallen in love with him.
HERE'S TO MANY MANY MORE, I LOVE YOU NICK!!
