Surprises Are so Much Fun!

I guess my family does like surprises. Someone said that to me once when I told them about how I surprised my family in February when I came up here for 2 days. It's true. There's just something about surprising the ones you love and seeing their face light up when they realize it :).

So, a few weeks back, my mom came and told me that the ladies at her job wanted to throw a baby shower for Christina at the funeral home (where my mom works). They wanted it to be a surprise. Oh so many things are factors in things like this! First of all, we had to know Christina's schedule in advance, since it changes from week to week. Well, that's nearly impossible. So, we decided to go the route of telling Christina to request to be off the evening of the baby shower. We waited until the kind people with whom my mom works to pick a date. They picked Tuesday, November 11. So we had to come up with an excuse to get Christina to request that time off. Tarylyn came up with the idea to say that we were going to go out for her birthday, which was the next day (today). That was a great idea! So, I told Christina. She said she'd ask that, if she is scheduled to work, to schedule her for the morning hours so she could participate in the birthday celebration for Tarylyn. Yay! Well, after all that, it turned out that Christina wasn't even scheduled to work the 11th at all! It worked so perfectly! And, we were still keeping it hush hush!!

Meanwhile, I felt it was unfair to not celebrate Tarylyn's birthday. Especially after we were making it look like we were. So, I began concocting a plan to suprise her as well! And so I had to get Brad in on it. I asked him if it would be okay for all of us to show up at his house after the baby shower for some cake and ice cream to celebrate Tarylyn's birthday, but that it had to be a surprise. He agreed. On Halloween, Tarylyn mentioned liking Rainbow Brite as a kid. I immediately thought that making the Rainbow Brite cake (from the pan Kira gave me) would be a great idea! However, as time ticked by... That was going to be way involved and I feel the need to have my own kitchen for something like that. Which I don't have. So, I came up with a new idea! I printed out a picture of Rainbow Brite from the computer. We used Christina's Betty Crocker bake-n-fill, and we used Rainbow Chip frosting and Rainbow candles! Christina came up with the idea of using the bake-n-fill when I told her I didn't think it would be easy to do the Rainbow Brite cake. (This will be done one day, fear not. I just really need my own place for something like that). And Christina helped me find rainbow candles at the store, and we filled a milk chocolate cake with cherry filling!

Oh wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. So anyway, it was all in the works, and both Tarylyn and Christina were still in the dark about their respective celebrations :). Mom and I made oreo truffles on Monday for the baby shower. Plus I got all the ingredients together for the Bacon-Cheese Mini Appetizers that everyone seems to love so much (thanks Jeni for this recipe! It is always a hit! The oreo truffles, too, coincidentally...). Tuesday morning arrived. I knew it would be a busy day. But, I generally thrive on days like this, as long as they aren't really stressful :). I like having a lot to do! I gathered everything for the day and headed out. I went by to purchase the gift for the shower on behalf of my mom. Then I took everything up to the funeral home and dropped it off so it was there. I called Tarylyn to find out if she likes cherry pie (for Thanksgiving...) in order to find out if she likes cherry so we could fill her cake with cherry. Then ran by the store and bought some. I got to Christina's around noon and we started baking the cake. Okay, so I learned an important lesson when using the bake-n-fill. You have to lock the top pan into place. So, Tarylyn, your cake was slightly misshapen. And it's my fault. Ugh. Once the cake was cooked and cooling, Christina, Desiree, and I ran to the store to get the frosting and the candles and the ice cream. We got back to the apartment and had lunch and worked on the cake. We had a crisis... I didn't think ahead about putting paper on frosting. It'd soak through. So, I thought of wax paper. Christina didn't have any. So she called Brad to ask if he had some. They did. But, how to get to it and put it on the cake so it'd all be ready for when Tarylyn finally saw it? So, finally it was decided Brad would have to put the finishing touches on the cake. See... I was picking up Tarylyn for the shower, so I was going to leave the cake and ice cream and everything in his truck for him to get out when we left. We also had to make sure his truck was unlocked. So Christina has him on the phone and says, "Okay Brad, is your truck unlocked, just answer yes or no." And he says, in his incredulous and confused voice, "Is my truck unlocked?" You big dummy. Hahaha... He'd forgotten about the surprise for Tarylyn and the set up for it. Men. Anyway, he was able to play it off and tell Tarylyn that Christina was talking to Desiree. By the time he got on the phone with me, he was laughing and saying he forgot. And so this is why I made the following diagram for him to follow when he was decorating the cake for us:


Hey... I'm telling you. You have to take precautions :). I had something in my mind, so I detailed it for him :). I even told Christina, while I was making the diagram, that Brad would laugh at my "anal-ness" for drawing the diagram in addition to writing the instructions. Yes, I know. But let me just say, Brad did a great job! See:

When he got it out of his truck, it was just frosted. So, thanks Brad for putting the finishing touches on it! And for doing all the stuff to help keep it a surprise!

Meanwhile, back at Christina's... I convince her that she should get dressed up and put on some make-up. Because when does she ever get to go out without her little girl and spend time with the gals? (Remember, she still thinks this is for Tarylyn's birthday). So, she does it. Really, I did this because I knew there'd be pictures taken and I didn't want her to say later, "Why didn't you tell me? I look terrible in the pictures!" Tarylyn called me and asked me how we were working this. I mean, how to do you continue a ploy such as this all the way to the end? And what possible reason is there for detouring to a funeral home? Well, this is it:

All the girls are going to go out and celebrate Tarylyn. But we all know how Mom likes to work late (and this is no lie). So, we're going to go to the funeral home to make sure Mom leaves work and joins us. And we're going to let Tarylyn decide where we're going to go eat once we're all together. And once we get to the funeral home, I'm going to run in and check to see if Mom's ready while Tarylyn and Christina are in the car waiting. And then I'll come back to the car and say that Mom's not quite ready and she said to come inside.

So there you have it. The story :). And it worked! We got her all the way down the stairs and into the reception hall at the funeral home. And you see, by the look on her face, that she was trying to figure it out (I believe this is the same face she made when I showed up on her doorstep in February).


The shower was wonderful. Much thanks to the fabulous people who work with my mom. What a sweet thing to do for my sister. And I'm so grateful they also included us :). Christina got a lot of great stuff. I'm sure she'll blog it eventually. I didn't take any pictures of the gift opening, since I was writing who brought what. But Tarylyn took pictures with Christina's camera (which I'd surreptitiously slipped into my purse so it'd be there :)). But, I did take pictures of the food. Aren't you so glad I did, Dad?


And here's everyone from the family who was there. We left Desiree with Brad and the kids, because Nick was still at work when we left Christina's.


And then we left and headed to take Tarylyn home. Where I almost slipped up twice and let on about the surprise awaiting her :). We got in the door and Saria ran up and said, "We got you a birthday cake!" And Tarylyn, who only heard birthday cake and thought Saria was referring to the restaurant (because they had to tell their kids the story we told Christina so they wouldn't spoil the baby shower surprise) told Saria that we didn't really go out to eat for her birthday. But then Saria pointed to the cake, sitting on the counter. Tarylyn's expression was great. She looked up and said, "Where did that come from?" And then it started to dawn on her. And she smiled and laughed and said, "You guys are sneaky!" And it was great, all the way around. No surprises let out of the bag. Lots of fun. And lots of love.


And these are the moments when I cherish my family most.