Phase 1: The Pennsylvania contingent arrives late Thursday night. We left around 4:30 in the afternoon and with a very smooth drive, stopping only twice since Hayden did a great job sleeping in the car after dinner, we arrived around 12:30 am. A quick phone call to mom when we were minutes away alerted her to our arrival and she promptly woke up Dad and said - your birthday present is arriving, get dressed! Thus moments later we greeted a sleepy, and very surprised, Poppop. Phase 1 was complete.
Phase 2: Friday began nice and quiet. Mom had jury duty (great civic timing, but she did get off). We made plans to go see my grandmother in Cary and to pick up the 2nd surprise. That meant brushing dad off on his request to come with us, but we made plans to go to lunch. We had a nice visit with Grandma and got the very snazzy cake (phase 2!) from the bakery - the same place we got our wedding cake from. The thing was HUGE and only sat in the bottom of a box, so we weren't sure how to "hide" it when we went to lunch. We just parked far away and made sure dad came nowhere near. Once back at the house, we were able to secret it downstairs to wait for it's special debut. We couldn't WAIT to eat it.
After a yummy Mexican lunch, we had plans for Hayden to nap and then to head to the mall to meet up with a friend and her daughter. Of course that meant Hayden had no interest in going to sleep. She played, screeched, cried a bit and joyfully greeted Jason when he went in to check on her after an hour. Dad volunteered to take her for a walk and after about half the block she could no longer resist the lure of sleep.
I ended up getting dropped off at the mall by mom (so middle school!) and Jason and Hayden came later. The play place was great and we had a good time. It was next to impossible to get pictures of Hayden and Allie together - until the end when they both liked getting up in Jason's arms!
Phase 3: Sometime in the evening, Mom got a mysterious phone call from our neighborhood family friend that she was stuck in the mall and needed Mom to get her. Mom headed out and we did the nighttime routine with Hayden - dinner, bath, etc. Just as dad was telling us that we didn't need to wait up for Mom to say goodnight to Hayden, "cuz who knows how long she'll be...", then we hear the car in the driveway and in bounds Aunt Katie. Dad gets a huge hug and has that surprised look on his face again. We all smile and laugh and get ready for dinner. Two sisters home, one more to go.
Phase 4: We have a lovely dinner with Katie, Mom and Dad - pasta with red sauce that Mom "lightens" up with cream. May not be good for you but it tastes YUMMY! Katie, who has a reputation in the family for being out late with friends, makes plans to head out to visit people. After all, she lives on the West Coast now so she doesn't see her NC people all that often. I loan her our car and off she goes. A little while later, we're all headed to bed, but the car comes back to the house. Dad takes the dogs out to see what Katie is up to and low and behold, it's Aunt Lacey, Uncle JT and cousin Jay!! Yay the family reunion is complete!
Saturday morning dawns and we need to share Phase 5 - which is a surprise open house birthday party on Sunday. Mom very un-subtly tells dad to check his email where he finds the evite we sent to him earlier. Now he knows about all the surprises (except the cake) and he just can't quite believe anything we tell him now. Luckily, we're all focused on getting out of the door and on the road down to Southern Pines to visit his parents, Great Granma Jane and Great Granpa Rut. We have a smooth trip down and the babies have a fun time showing off for a full audience of 9 adults. Every thing goes well till it's time to head over to the dining hall for lunch and Hayden decides to have her worst tantrum ever. Literally 20 minutes of non-stop, inconsolable fussing. Everyone heads over without us and we finally try taking her for a walk to get her to calm down. It works and she rallies quite well for lunch - eating almost an entire 1/4 lb beef hotdog and as many blueberries as we can secure from the waitstaff. Everyone is entertained and all stay happy. Here's Hayden and Jay playing BEFORE the meltdown.
And here's the Sanford family clan all together.
Hayden had more issues with not-sleeping on the car ride home but she managed. Back home it was family party night. Happy hour was enjoyed, a turkey was fried and the cake made its debut. Crowns were tried on, baby dolls were put to bed in boxes and milk cups were traded back and forth.
Here's dad getting his first view of the cake - that's pretty much what he looked like most of the weekend - happy, surprised and a little overwhelmed. Hopefully that was a good feeling on the inside.
We finally got to try the cake on Saturday night and boy was it delicious. Yum! We all went to bed with full tummies, ready for a big party day on Sunday.
So Sunday we had a great lunch out at another Mexican place where Dad was surprised at the end of the meal with a giant sombrero and happy birthday from the staff (not in Spanish that I recall). I wish I had a picture but I'd forgotten my camera. I think all of us were surprised by the singing but it was fun. Plus the kids even ate stuff. Jay loved the rice and Hayden thought the refried beans were delicious. Naptime finally went well and once everyone was up and about, it was party time! We got to see "aunt" Lori and her new boyfriend Wes, and lots of other family friends.
Mini-cupcakes were had by all, even Hayden.
I think the best part of the day was after the party when the kids just went crazy having fun. Check out this video as an example... (I had a longer, more fun one, but it took forever to upload, so this one will have to do. I'm still learning the video
All in all it was a GREAT weekend. The kids are getting to be SO much fun. They played the piano, helped wash cars, harassed the dogs and just generally enjoyed life.
Hayden said Happy Poppop (her version of happy birthday poppop) many, many times. I'm not sure she's going to understand that sometimes we say Happy Birthday to people besides Poppop. And everyone even made it home safely with no delays. I'll leave you with one final family picture...
Happy Birthday Poppop! Hope you had a great one! Operation Birthday Complete. Over and out.
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