Dad's 60th Birthday!

My sisters and I and our step-mom threw Dad a surprise birthday party. It was quite the feat - Dad is too smart, so we had to be REALLY sneaky!

Jock, Kaylen and I, and my younger sister and her husband were camping the weekend with Dad and Terry, like we did last year. Dad and Terry have a permanent site near where my other sister lives, so it made sense. Dad and Terry have a large building on their property where they host receptions, so we planned to have the party there - and prayed for nice weather so we could still camp and have Dad off the property. :)

Dad's birthday was actually on Saturday, so when my other sister came by the camp site to visit us, we had her ask Dad if he wanted to go out for supper. He hemmed and hawed and said that we could just have grill something at the campsite, but she came back with, well, she already made reservations and invited grandma, so he had to agree. Then after lunch, Amy proceeded to ask us (Jock and I and Karen) if we wanted to come help her can salsa or make peach jam - so that gave us the out to go get things set up. :)
Terry's job was to conveniently forget some things at the house that she needed for the weekend at the campground. So she was to talk Dad into running by the house to get things before dinner at the restaurant. We figured how long it would take Dad and Terry to get from the campground to the house, then to "get her forgotten things" then get to the restaurant, and calculated back from there for when they would arrive and when to have the guests arrive.

When Dad and Terry were on their way to the house, she texted us to let us know how far out they were. She told Dad that we were asking where things were in the camper for us to get ready for dinner - thinking we were back there after canning salsa or something. :) We were secretly gathering the guests in the parking lot to sing to Dad as soon as he got out of the truck.

Dad looked really surprised. I thought for a minute he was gonna lose it - his face got red, etc. and he turned back to the truck for his hat and was OK then. We took a few picture, then the dinner and mingling began. It was a great evening and it worked out really well.

(Mom and Dad got us these t-shirts for Christmas one year)

I think we actually did surprise him - or at least he let us believe we'd fooled him. He said he had no idea, and was a maybe a little irritated that Terry had "forgotten" several things at the house. :) Then he said he was confused why were "texting Terry about the blow dryer and curling iron" in the camper. Then when they got close to the pole barn he saw a couple cars and got mad that people had thought their garage sale was the wrong weekend and stopped by anyway, then he saw more cars and thought the barn might have been on fire, then he recognized whose vehicles and knew something was up. hee-hee.

We're thankful the event went off (almost) without a hitch (we ran out of plastic forks). It was a lot of fun to see so many family and friends there, and a beautiful day for a nice party! Instead of gifts, we asked the guests to bring a salad to share and a funny card for Dad. We had yummy cake - the kids had fun (after everyone had had some), peeling off the black frosting and making their mouths black. We had lots of left-over beans and hot dogs, just enough potatoes and hamburgers, and just enough cake to have a little left-over for the rest of the weekend.

(Yes, we lit all 60 candles - assistance was needed from 4 grandchildren and one great niece to blow them all out!)

Hope you had a wonderful 60th birthday Dad! (ps. don't think we'll ever be able to pull off another surprise party on him - he'll be too suspicious now - at least until he starts losing his memory :) Love you, Dad!