I decided to throw Spencer a surprise birthday party this year and with some help from a dear friend, Cindy Merrill, it was perfect! She graciously offered her backyard for the festivities and many of our good friends were able to join us to celebrate.
It ended up being an elaborate plan to pull off the surprise because Spencer is so observant of everything and is always home when I get back from work and when I leave in the mornings so I don't have many opportunities to sneak things by him. I coordinated with Cindy over the phone and through texts several weeks prior to the party as we made sure the park behind their house would be free and talked through all the details.
It seemed like there was something to get done every day during the week leading up to the party and that was the week at work that I was working til midnight every night so I was pretty exhausted by the time his party actually rolled around. My co-worker and I would tease each day about how that day was operation___ based on what I needed to get done. Tuesday was "Operation Cake", so I stopped by Costco on the way home to order his cake and actually forgot and remembered partway through my drive home and had to turn back. Wednesday was "Operation Bag" because I needed to sneak a separate bag to work to hold the clothes that I was going to bring the next day in my gym bag that I bring for work volleyball on Thursdays. Thursday was "Operation Clothes" where I brought extra clothes with me and then switched them into the bag at work. All of that was necessary because Spencer notices what I leave with and come home with. Then Friday was "Operation Food" where I stopped at Costco and bought enough food for what seemed like an army. I bought 64 hot dogs and 14 brats and we only ended up with 8 left over when the night was done! Luckily I had been working crazy hours for work so spending a couple hours at Costco disguised as "working late" didn't even phase Spencer as out of the ordinary. Probably the only advantage to working long hours :).
Saturday was a busy day. We started with soccer in the morning then came home and showered. Spencer ran to the grocery store quickly while I showered and while he was gone, I commenced "Operation Glove". My parents had sent him a baseball glove for his birthday and I told him he couldn't open the package until that night since my parents wanted to video chat with him while he opened it. Then while he was out, I cut open the bottom of the box, pulled the glove out, snuck our camera bag into the box which weighed about the same amount, then taped it back up and put the glove in my purse for the party.
After Spencer got back from the store, we ran to see X-Men which Spencer had been wanting to see for a while. Then we came home and Spencer took a nap. I told him that we needed to dress up nicely that night because we were going to a Tepanyaki restaurant up north. Then Cindy started texting me as guests started arriving and once there were enough people she called to ask to borrow our sports equipment which happens somewhat regularly in our ward. That was my cue that it was time to head over. I woke Spencer up, got him dressed and we headed out the door. Once we got there, Cindy invited us in and asked if we wanted to see the backyard, not super unusual since Spencer had helped with laying their patio and so they often invite Spencer back to show the progress in the yard. Spencer was so shocked to see so many people there waiting to wish him a happy birthday. I think we ended up with around 70 people there including adults and kids. It was absolutely wonderful and couldn't have been any better. We were so grateful that so many dear friends made it out to come celebrate with us. The weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a great time chatting. Towards the end of the night we headed over to the softball field with some of the kids and hit it around and had a great time. Spencer had a chance to use his new glove for the first time and is thrilled to have such a nice glove!
Our cute little friend Leah Merrill made this fabulous video from footage she took at the party, isn't she so creative! Thanks Leah :)!
