"My First Surprise Party..."

Hello All,

In all of the years that I have been married to Lela, I have never once surprised her on her birthday. Aside from the usual ways in which gift cards appear on her night stand or flowers on her kitchen table, there are generally no other startling moments. I can't really say what got into me this year, but for the first time in 12 years, I decided to surprise Lela. And that's just what I did.

It began in my mind a while back, when I thought that it would be fun to see her face when she saw how cleverly I had played the role of "Business-As-Usual" Frank. That's when the plan hatched. I would invite our neighbors to our house, they would wait in the garage and when the door opened up, Lela would be looking at our neighborhood friends who had come to celebrate her. Pretty standard surprise fare, but the challenge would be my ability to pull of the deception.

Without tooting my own horn, (too much!) I will say that for a newbie to the surprise industry, I think that I pulled it off quite nicely. With a HUGE assist coming from our precious neighbor and Lela's prayer partner, Mia, the surprise went off without a hitch. Returning from Olive Garden with my parents, Lela opened the garage and saw the little feet of all our kids jumping up and down in excitement. Smiles were everywhere, but especially on Lela's face!

It made me happy to celebrate my wife this way. I know how much that she is loved and this little party helped her to see that in a little more tangible way. At the end of the day, she reported how special she felt. I said to myself, "Mission Accomplished!"

Here are a few pics of the festivities:
"...The Garage goes up and..."SURPRISE face! Inside the garage photo courtesy of Cecelia!




















Those terrible Costco people and their cruel sense of humor! They'll be hearing from me about this!




While we were at dinner, Mia and the kids did a makeshift birthday banner, as well as a few "cards" from the kids. A little chalk on the walls and you have a festive environment. Mia: Thank you so very much for your help!






And this is pretty much the end of every event: Hang time!Next year: Clowns! It's going to be fantastic!

Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez