A Drive - By Celebration

I am SO glad my mom didn't tell me any earlier than she did. Keeping secrets is HARD, especially when you live with the person. I had to think through each thing I wanted to say, to make sure it was okay to be said to my brother!

Last Saturday, May 30th, was supposed to be my brother's graduation ceremony. Obviously, that did not happen. My mom cooked up a drive-by surprise to have something special on the day anyway. (It turned out that my brother didn't even remember that it was supposed to be his graduation, but she didn't want it to go by unnoticed. It was tricky, but we pulled it off and he had NO IDEA!!!

The hard thing about planning family surprises is the calendar. What do you write to say that a time is spoken for but not raise questions? We've been watching the Marvel movies with our grandmother and we have to find free times. Mark looked at the calendar and saw that Saturday was free all day until the evening. Let's watch the next movie! Oma agreed and then we had her text Mom to say she was busy in the afternoon and needed to to the morning. *whew* Escaped that one.

Mom wanted me to make some cupcakes for our neighbors. That didn't raise any suspicions because I've been baking all of quarantine. Joe even helped with the charade by acting annoyed at Mom's "silly" requests like, "I need this done by this time".

Mom had gotten some banners to hang by the door and a yard sign. She asked the neighbors if they would come outside at 1:30 to cheer and applaud for Mark. He came out to see everyone and the signs and was very surprised!!! The drive-by wasn't until 2 but we managed to stay outside in a non-suspicious way until then. Right at 2, the first people came and the "drive by" turned into an outdoor gathering :)

It was SO GOOD to see people!!!! I don't know who had a the best day, Mark or the rest of us! One of my best friends and their family came and I was giddy. Then our cousins came and we got to see them for the first time in three and a half months!!!!! It was too much for words.

It was a long day. The idea was from 2-3 but by the time we were done it was 5:30. In the middle we had done a family celebration for our cousin's birthday. We were exhausted but it was a good exhaustion. It was nice to have such a joyful day. It had been too long.