For his big day, Aaron was under the impression that we were going out for brunch with our friends on Saturday morning and going out to dinner with myself and my parents later that same night. Little did he know, there was a whole different set of plans laid out.
It is usually tradition for all of the Bollwahns to be together to celebrate the Twin's birthday. Last year, given that we spent this period of time with our niece, Millie, we broke the tradition. This year, we were back on track for a big family celebration, of course unbeknownst to Aar.
On Friday evening, Aaron's parents were the first to arrive for the big surprise. Aaron was sitting on the couch when a large pick-up truck pulled up across the street. Aaron being the nosy neighbor that he is, stared at the truck for a long while and then exclaimed "That looks just like my parents' car!" I lost my composure into a wave of giggles.
Aaron was of course surprised by their presence. Fortunately, Ashley had just spent the weekend prior to their birthday (which fell on a Wednesday) with her parents' in downstate MI for some appointments. With this in mind, the Bollwahns were able to play off the idea that "we got to celebrate Ashley's birthday with her earlier this week and we thought it would be fun to come surprise you and celebrate with you this weekend!"
Aaron was ecstatic to see them but immediately concerned about all of our "plans" for the next day. I let him know that the brunch was just a scheme to keep him from signing up to work overtime Friday night into Saturday morning. And I told him that I set this dinner up so that we would be going with both of our parents.
Then a few hours after their arrival, Brandon knocked on the door. Aaron woke from his Friday night slumber with a bit of confusion and a lot of happiness. At this point I said "Don't worry, there are no more surprises. I promise Ashley's not coming and we can go to bed." Which was partially true.
The next morning Aaron woke to the idea that we had a full day ahead of us with nothing to do until the evening. I knew otherwise, and had to come up with a plan that would get us out of the house to bide off any sneaking suspicions but get us home in time for Ashley's surprise arrival. Thus unfolded the perfect plan to go to the Winter's Farmer's Market. (This is mostly hilarious to me because in the scheming of things, I offered to go hiking and Aaron thought that would be a lot to do in one day - brunch, hike, dinner... In reality this day had so much activity jammed into it). The Farmer's Market takes place at the Domes, which are these beautiful botanical gardens near our house. It was a first time go for everyone and we all came back satisfied with the food and experience. The best part was that it closes up shop at 12:00 which gave us plenty of time to head back to the house for Ashley's 1:30 arrival.
So cut to us watching TV at home when I see Ashley pull up. The front of her car was just in eye shot of the picture window and Aaron noticed enough to look at it but didn't stare at it long enough to analyze. She had luckily parked in front of our neighbors house who tends to get a lot of visitors, especially because they had just welcomed home their second daughter earlier that week. So Aaron didn't think anything of it. Not even when he saw Ashley walking with Max up our sidewalk. Instead he said "That looks like your friend Danica." And then... Ding, ding, ding... It dawned on him. So Max and Ashley's arrival was the last of the guest surprises but there was still more excitement to unfold.
Again, under the impression that we were going out to eat with my parents, Aaron said to me, "You better call your mom and tell her she has to change the reservation to a place that's family style." I told him, "Aaron she already knows. This whole dinner was planned and you're the only person who didn't know. Reservations are already set to go." The guy was bewildered by it all, but in a very good way.
I needed Aaron to take the car seat out of the car as I intended to carpool a group of us to the next surprise. So I told him, "There's one more thing we are doing before dinner. It is casual so what you are wearing is fine but you do need to be ready to go by 4:00. Your mom is staying back to watch the boys, but my dad will be joining us." And he said "Why can't my mom and the boys come?" And I said "Because what we're doing is not appropriate for kids."
This surprise drove Aaron nuts thinking about it. He was trying to figure out what we could be doing that started at four and would be done so that we could be back for dinner at 6. And was something the kids could not do. I think he finally decided on the idea of a brewery tour. He bugged me like every 20 minutes to try and find out the answer. I was loving every bit of this perplexity because I knew the actual surprise was nowhere in his radar and that he was going to have a blast!
4:00 rolled around and we hopped into the car. We drove towards the mall and Aaron finally suspected that we were going to Dave and Buster's since there were no breweries over in this area. Instead I drove past Dave and Buster's and after a couple of accidental wrong turns, I got us to our destination, which honestly was still a puzzle in itself. T he building we sat in front of was a large office building with an empty parking lot and half abandoned structure. There were two company names on the sign and neither of them were the company I anticipated. The entrance looked locked from where we sat and I was honestly skeptical that I was in the right location.
As we walked towards the building, we saw our friends Tim and Michelle. Aaron didn't know they were coming and the became suspicious that other people would be there too. I told him there weren't, but that was a lie. Of course.
We were greeted by a woman dressed in a tuxedo shirt and were given directions to a location inside the building. Aaron still had no clue. We get to the room and the destination is finally revealed: EscapeMKE. I was thinking that would be the missing piece to the puzzle, but Aaron said, "I still have no idea what this is." I refused to give him details and told him he'd have to wait and find out. The last of our party, Andrea and Jason arrived and the game was explained: we were a team of FBI agents trying to uncover the whereabouts of a particular spy. We were given a minute to review information about this man, which included past information about previous marriages, kids, and so forth. And also told about information he possibly had and the information we still had to look for. I was honestly so overwhelmed that we had so little time to study this information that I couldn't focus on any of the information. The ten of us were then sent into a room and given one hour to uncover the clues. I was basically dead water, especially because I couldn't even remember what three things we ere sent in to uncover. Jason, Brandon and Tim seemed to be making good progress, while I sat and looked through books for a half hour trying to find some hidden message I thought could be in there. Ashley was key in figuring out the last clue that got the door unlocked for us with just over I've minutes to spare! It was an intense hour but it was a lot of fun. And per the employee who was guiding us, we had the highest score for the day of four or five groups.
While this was going on, my mom and Cindy were not only taking care of the boys, but also getting dinner prepared for our arrival and Kathryn was busy decorating the house. Everything was perfect for our arrival home and Aaron was surprised to find out there was no family dinner reservations but instead a big party at our house. Our friends Sam and Jake and Laura and Tony, and my sisters' boyfriends Aaron and Woody also joined us for the celebration. There were Enchiladas, Tacos, and Burritos for dinner. Cindy brought cheesecake, Red Velvet Cake, and Apple Pie for dessert. There was pool and Drunk Ball going on in the basement with a bunch of the guys, and the ladies chatting upstairs. Aaron enjoyed himself (and hopefully Ashley too). I had so much fun giving him a weekend full of surprises. He deserves it for all that he does for our family. I couldn't have done it without all of the help from both our families! I was so grateful for such a wonderful turn out! Hope these memories stick with him for a lifetime (cuz planning a surprise party is exhausting and I don't plan to do it again 😂)!
It was a fun day. THanks.
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