Planning a surprise...

birthday party in my family is Mission Impossible meets Saturday Night Live.

My mom's "very special __th" birthday was Sunday. Dad wanted my sister and I to come up with a plan. We came up with a plan. J would invite Mom to spend the weekend with them, and my family would drive up as a surprise. The surprise being that Husband would let me ride in the car for that trip. I'm still on some sitting restrictions so riding in the car past 30-40 minutes is not my best choice.

Unbeknownst (love that word) to my Dad, my Mom called me and asked if they could drive down on Thursday and spend a couple of nights before going to my sister's on Saturday.

Umm. Yes, ma'am, that would be fine.

Immediately I called my sister and told her the news. No problem, we will just switch the lunch to my locale and her family would drive down. My sister calls my Dad to let him know about the change.

Umm. No, sir, that will not work. Mom had not told dad about her call. He tells her that they cannot possibly drive to my house because of other obligations. He emails my sister and me to let us know to stick to the original plan.

Meanwhile, back at the empty nesters, Mom is not. happy. with dad and informs him that he will call his daughters and tell them that they are not coming. Which he does. Only to let us know that he has given Mom a new direction to chew on. He tells her that they are going to my sister's house one day and my house the next.

Umm. Okay.

I go through the whole ruse of telling Mom what I will fix for dinner and dessert and so on. We even call her the morning of the birthday and tell her our plans for the day, not mentioning any trip anywhere at all.

Finally, and a bit late we make it to the restaurant for the surprise birthday party.

She knew all along. Because that's my Mom. Those eyes in the back of her head and ears all over the house? The skills have not left.

Happy Birthday, Mom. Glad we could be with you. Don't let Dad plan anything else.