Happy Birthday, Ya Old Farts!

This weekend was the long anticipated SURPRISE 30th birthday party for Andrew and Travis. Surprise parties are by far the most stressful thing on the planet and I don't want to plan one ever again. But this party turned into a great success even with all the major bumps along the way.

First Bump: Morgan Can't Read Numbers

So Katie and I had been planning this party for a couple of months. She sent me an email that said, "I'm thinking about the 25th for the boys' party." I wrote back, "The 26th sounds great." I did not realize until Katie sent out the Evite invitation to 80 people that I had read the wrong date. I told all of Andrew's family and mine that the party was the 26th. Holy moses. Yes I cried when this happened. For HOURS. How can I screw that up? Katie and I talked about switching it to Saturday but they were invited to a wedding that day and had invited the bride and groom. How awkward would that be? Um, we're not coming to your wedding anymore AND you're now invited to the same party and it's on your wedding day. Nope, not so much. So we kept it on the 25th and there were a lot of people who were able to make it because it was on Friday and not Saturday, (due to weddings or leaving for vacations that day) so that was good. Phew.

Second Bump: Trying to Keep it a Secret

There were several times when Andrew almost found out about the party. There was the time when we were talking to our neighbors, the Zmyslos, and they said, "Isn't your birthday party on the 25th?" I was standing behind Andrew furiously shaking my head no. Luckily it went right over Andrew's head.
Next, I had told Andrew several times that we were going out to dinner on Friday the 25th. He forgot and planned to take his clients out that night. I tried everything I could (including inviting his clients) but I couldn't convince him otherwise so I ended up telling him that we had planned a surprise party for him so he had to cancel on his clients. He was sad because he had never had a surprise party before but it was actually a good thing because...
The next day (the day of the party) Andrew got a call from one of his clients who said, "Hey aren't you having a birthday party tonight?" So I guess it's better to hear it from me than someone else, right?

Anyway, Travis was still surprised and both the boys had a wonderful time so the party was a great success!

Now on with the pictures!

The Cake for the 30 Year Old Farts

Me and the Birthday Boy

Kevin and Diane made it the night before they were leaving for vacation. Aww!

The members of Lost Days (Andrew's old band) showed up so they could have a mini-reunion. Let's walk down memory lane on that one, shall we??

Such great memories....
Now back to the party...

My lovely sister-in-law and I

The Thornburg Crew

The McCutcheon Crew: They were sitting in a circle singing songs. We never quite figured out what the songs were about but they were darn catchy!

I believe this is the point where Andrew had said something offensive and Kevin is referring to that statement with his hand. And well, so is Andrew. Nice.

My mom had taken over my camera at this point. She told me, "You'll be glad you have these pictures!" And then my battery died.

Brandon showed up after he got off work.

Can you imagine these two guys NOT having a good time together??

Hey there's me, sucking down some caffeine so I can try to stay awake for the remainder of the night.

The Keipers (thinking to themselves, please Wilma, stop taking pictures!)

Travis and Katie, looking cute

And of course the typical Andrew shot from the night. He definitely had a great time.

For more proof of his great time, check out this highly edited video (due to cusswords and the extraordinary amount of booing) of Andrew making fun of the Irish singer in the other room.




Speaking of the Irish singer in the other room...
My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, Andrew and I were all outside Nine Irish saying bye while they closed down inside. We hear an odd sound behind us. WHAT was THAT? We turn around and it's the Irish singer barfing his brains out all over the parking lot. WHAT???? He was just performing for everyone. He was throwing up so bad, he stopped once to clear out his nostrils (using the old farmer's kleenex, if you will). How nasty is that?? We were appalled. Actually no, we ran to our cars hysterically laughing. That is kind of mean. But I promise, after all the barfing, he was perfectly fine.

Okay one more story and then this post is over, I promise.

Since I had to ruin the surprise for Andrew, I wanted to surprise him by giving him his birthday present early.  But since I ruined his surprise two days before his party, this was going to be difficult.  I wanted to get him an iPad.  Now you would think with Apple introducing the iPhone 4 that day, it wouldn't be that hard to find a product that had been on the shelf for a little while.  Turns out, yes, it is still difficult.  I looked everywhere.  There wasn't one in Michiana.  Dang.  So Brandon found one using www.milo.com (which is an amazing website) in Merrillville.  So I call Best Buy in Merrillville and ask if they still have the iPad.  She said Yes.  "SWEET!! Can you hold it?" I ask.  "Yes, for an hour," she replies.
Oh CRAP.  I'm an hour and 20 minutes away.  So I jump in my car and race over there.  I call Best Buy again when I've still got 20 minutes to drive ask if they can hold it longer.  She pleasantly agrees.  I'm like SWEET! This is actually going to happen.

I arrive at the Merrillville Best Buy and walk in the door.  Being preggo me, I decide going to the bathroom is way more important than going to customer service to pick up the iPad.  When I'm in the bathroom, the power goes out in Best Buy.  Are you kidding me???  I walk up to customer service and they promptly tell me that they cannot help me because they have to wait for the computer system to come back up.
NOOOOOOO!!!!!  So I decide I'm going to wait it out.  I drove all the way over here, I'm getting my stinkin' iPad.

This is my view from the floor of the Best Buy.  Yes, I sat on the floor.  Not only did I sit on the floor but...

I squeegeed the Jello out of a cup out of my purse.  I was hungry.  I didn't want to have another episode like I did at the Cubs game.  Katie wasn't available to be my medic at this time.

So there I was eating Jello while sitting on the floor of Best Buy while I watched the Best Buy blue shirts struggle with anything and everything. At one point, the blue shirt borrows a customer's cell phone because BB's phones were not working and she needed to call the help desk for a problem with the computer system.  Man, was I glad I didn't work at Best Buy on this day.  Wow.

But guess what???

Perseverance pays off!  I GOT IT!! (Haha, look at that nerd! Taking a picture of her iPad with her iPhone. GEEK!)

Anyway, I was able to buy the iPad, race home, sync it, put all the fun apps on it (like the birthday app above) and get back out of the house before Andrew got home.  I was pulling out of our neighborhood and I called Andrew. "Where are you?"  He said, "On Quince Road."  He was less than a mile away.  I'm THAT good. 
SUCK IT, INDIANA JONES!!

So, I guess to sum up the whole weekend... I'm exhausted.

And next year I turn 30.  Andrew, you better start planning now.  :)