My Favorite Birthday EVER

I've had a lot of fun birthdays in my life, but one stands out as the TOP birthday I've ever had. This is year is the 10-year anniversary of that birthday, which is just crazy to me because it doesn't seem possible that it has been that long.

My friends and I had talked about surprise parties - whether or not we liked them or how we would best take them - over the years. I knew that I would love a surprise party as long as I had NO idea it was happening. A partial surprise would drive me nuts. My one friend, on the other hand, preferred to know it was happening but not know details. (Even though she figured out all the details anyway.)

Here we are, in 2014, and I was secretly hoping that this might be the year I get a surprise party. My birthday came and went and February ended with no party. I won't lie, I was a little disappointed. But I had a good birthday with my best friend and it was good.

Back in those days, there was this business called The Village Workshop. They were interested in plugging into the homeschool community and had done meetings with parents before but this one day in early March, we were supposed to go over to my best friend's house for this informal meeting with families and the guy who owned the place. I was really not wanting to go but I didn't have a choice. I didn't have the best mood about it :)

We get to the house and my mom says that they asked us to come in through the garage. Okay, whatever. We open the door and there are paper cutouts of shoe prints taped to the floor. With most people, this would be the first clue that something was up, but not with these friends of mine. I thought nothing of it.

Then I turn the corner to the staircase that leads down into their living room and I freeze in shock! The first person I register is a friend I'd hardly seen in years and people are saying "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" and I'm shaking, laughing, and hardly able to believe it! I was SO surprised!!!

The party was a murder mystery and I felt so loved, so special, on that day. My closest friends were there, two of whom had skipped practices of their sports to be there. It was an amazing day and I still remember the emotions. I will treasure the memories always. In case you were wondering, my brother Joe's character was the murder victim and our friend Nathan was the murderer, but he escaped :)


Have you ever been thrown a surprise party? Would you like to have one? Do you have a particular birthday that stands out to you?



(Somewhere there are photos from this party but they are currently MIA. 2014 was an interesting year as we transitioned to fully digital things.)