62. Host a Summer BBQ

On August 1st, dan celebrated his birthday, and this year, it was a big one.  I started planning about two months before his birthday, and decided to throw him a surprise party at our house.

Looking back, i do not know what i was thinking.  But when you love someone, sometimes you do crazy things.

I sent out invites for a Surprise Birthday BBQ, without really knowing how I was going to pull it off.  I just dropped the invites in the mailbox, and prayed it would all work out!   And it did...

In the weeks leading up to the big day, I was in pure stress mode, triple checking my to-do lists, thinking twice about every word that came out of my mouth in front of Dan, all the while trying to be as normal as possible.

One of our best friends, Ian, has a birthday two days before Dan, so we often celebrate their birthdays together.  This year, it worked out perfectly to "meet up at the movies" as part of a birthday present to Dan and Ian.  I know Dan got suspicious the minute that Brittney and I revealed we were not going to the movie with them.  We just dropped them in the parking lot, flew back to my house to transform it into party central in just 2.5 hours.

Those 2.5 hours went by in a blur, but with the absolutely incredible help of my family and friends, especially my parents, Dan's parents and sister, and Brittney, I pulled it off .  It was the biggest surprised I'd ever attempted for him, although, you wouldn't have any idea that he was truly surprised just by looking at his face.  He maintained his signature poker face.  I had to ask repeatedly, "Are you surprised?  Really? Are you? Did you have any idea?", and while he admitted he knew something was up, but he was totally surprised by the party being at our house, and by all of the people that came.  It meant a lot to him, and that was exactly what I was hoping for!

My fabulous sis-in-law, and photography extraordinaire, Sabina, was on hand to document the whole event, and here are the highlights from the party...

a timeline in photos

the invitation

waiting for the birthday boy

his surprised face

looking at Ian, "Did you know about this?"

This party's for me?

 yummy food!

i sure do love him

couldn't have done it without this girl

grillin' burgers

I have one more surprise for you, Dan...

it's the game truck

even little Annabelle loved the game truck

ice cream sandwich cake... delicious, but messy!