I thought I was safe. The big day had come and gone without too much excitement. The Heathens were upset because I didn't want to go to Chuck E. Cheese for my birthday, but they had calmed down. That was Tuesday.
Fast forward through the rest of a hectic week with the Heathens and the Asst. Zookeeper. It's now Saturday morning. The Asst. Zookeeper left for work around 5 am. The Heathens and I were scheduled to go snow tubing at Seven Springs at 12:30 with a local youth group. The Asst. Zookeeper was going to meet us there.
When he joined us, he handed me my mitten that I had dropped on the ground at the Zoo as the Heathens were getting into the van. He said he had to drive a guy home from the mine because he was having car trouble, so the Asst. Zookeeper stopped at the house to let Duchess outside before joining us.
After snow tubing, we needed to head home quickly and get ready to go to the spaghetti dinner at our church. I had bought tickets more than a week before from one of our youth group members. We rushed home. As we were pulling in, I noticed that there were a lot of cars. I assumed that the little girl next door was having a birthday party.
We gathered everything out of the van (hats, mittens, snow pants, etc.) and the Asst. Zookeeper mentioned that his two brothers were in the shop using some of his tools. Whatever. Common occurrence.
And then I walked into a house full of people - and a surprise birthday party. I should mention at this point that I was wearing no make-up, had been snow tubing for several hours, and was dressed in a sweatshirt and snow pants. :) Obviously, the Asst. Zookeeper keeps a secret well!
He had gone to work that morning. But he was home and parked down the street while he watched me put the kids into the van and head for snow tubing. He headed back for the house to set up and that is when he found my mitten. And then he found my cell phone on the table that I had forgotten. It put some extra stress on him thinking that I might notice and head home for them.
After he had the house set up, he headed for snow tubing. His mom and a few friends took over and set up the food and drinks while we were gone. It was quite a set up!
Once we were there, I got lots of hugs from family & friends. And HUGE hugs from the nieces and the nephew (I love seeing them!) I got to see my mom & dad, my Gram, my inlaw's, both brother-in-law's and their families, the Asst. Zookeeper's grandparents, and friends. For my small house, it was a big party. If I can count, it was about 22 or 23.
There were lots of cards. My niece, Rorrie, had made me a bracelet out of beads that said "Aunt dani" on it. She made sure to tell me she did it by herself, except for tying it together. Her dad helped her with that. Her little sister, Gerty, wouldn't let me wear it. She kept insisting that it was Rorrie's and taking it off my wrist.
The Asst. Zookeeper handed me an item that was wrapped up in lime green party napkins. No tape. Just folded up. He had bought me a book. It was better than jewelry! He had actually gone and found a book by a new author that I've never read. And he made sure that it was one in a series, because he knows those are my favorite (I hate it when stories end!). He had even made sure he bought the first one in the series.
It's been a few days since the party - and I've now read the first 3 books in the series. It's great! He picked a perfect book for me!
As the days pass, I keep finding out the effort he put into rounding up everyone and keeping it secret. It's one of the sweetest things he's ever done. Wrapped in napkins and all.
