We love surprise parties!

We love to have surprise birthday parties when ever we can.  Normally we like to plan them better and really decorate to make the person feel special but, yes here it is again, we have been soooo busy that this birthday just snuck right up on us and yesterday being Sunday we couldn't just run to the store.  It is not a birthday that we usually get to have cake for but this year is different.  This is my sister Christina's birthday.  She has been working so hard and putting everyone else first that I couldn't let her birthday go by without celebrating it.  The kids and I wanted it to be a surprise so that it would be more special to her.  We had told her happy birthday earlier that day but waited until after dinner when she went back downstairs to bake her cake.

The girls made her a banana bread "cake" since she has been asking for some.  They decorated it and found some great candles.

Each of the older girls made her a birthday card.

Add caption

 So, to get her upstairs with out her suspecting anything was up I came up with something that was sure to get her upstairs but was a little mean in the process.  I couldn't just call her up because it was late and she had already gotten ready for bed.  Yes, it always takes us until late to get cakes made.  Everyone found a hiding place and I turned off all the lights upstairs.  I jumped on the floor so that it would sound like I fell down and then started complaining loudly about the pain.  It worked!  Joey was upstairs in two seconds flat to see what happened so we quickly quieted him and had him hide.  Chris came up stairs as fast as she could and when she got to the top of the stairs and turned on the lights we all jumped out and yelled...SURPRISE!!!  She was momentarily angry for the mean stunt I pulled but after realizing that everyone was okay she was so happy that we cared so much for her to surprise her.

She was glad we didn't put the correct number of candles on the cake.  You can see the kid's attempt on the wall and door to decorate with what we had on hand.  She was totally happy and loved the cards and cake.  Happy Birthday Christina!!