My parents' 30th wedding anniversary was this past Monday, October 10th. A few months ago I was talking to my sister, Erin, about it and suggested that she come in town (she lives in Washington, DC) for the weekend to celebrate. At first we talked about doing a dinner for them with us and their parents but then the wanna-be party planner in me decided we should throw a surprise party. We decided to to keep it pretty small (yes, we both have jobs, but we're both young professionals with college loans to pay off!) and invite close family and friends. Needless to say, for the several weeks leading up to the party Erin and I were both stressed and both had dreams that our parents found out, weren't excited, etc.
The way our plan worked is that Erin would drive from DC to my apartment in New Concord on Friday evening, then we would drive to Akron together Saturday morning to get everything done for the party, have the party Saturday evening, then drive back to New Concord on Sunday so that Erin could head back to DC. Plans ended up changing a bit, but Erin and I were both in Akron Saturday early afternoon and felt like spies or something trying to make sure we knew where our parents were at all times so we wouldn't run into them. We honestly went as far as playing our games of Words With Friends with our mom--if she took her turn we knew she was at home because she can only play through Facebook!
Finally we got everything set up and the party was ready to begin.
The party took place at my grandpa's condo party room. The day of the party was also the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. My mom's side of the family is Jewish and my grandparents were at temple part of the day. The plan was that my grandpa and step-grandma invited my parents to go out to dinner to break the fast. My parents picked them up at their condo and my grandpa told them he needed to drop something off at the condo offices (in the same building as the party room), and my step-grandma convinced them to come inside to see the renovations. Our dreams thankfully turned out to be completely wrong. Our parents were absolutely shocked when they walked in to the party.
As we predicted, Mom cried and Dad teared up but held it together nicely, although his face turned beat red! Luckily I was on hand with napkins (in all of our planning we somehow forgot tissues!). After the initial shock, crying, and calling their daughters sneaky liars (that's putting it nicely!) our parents had time to eat, talk, and relax with friends and family. I, being the persistent person I am, kindly informed my parents that they had to go through the whole cake-cutting process like a married couple typically does at their wedding.
The food was good, the cake was good, and the company was good. All in all, a successful party I'd say. Glad that I could start ticking off those Bucket List items with an event such as this. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you very much!
Oh, and we couldn't forget a lovely Brady Family pic!
And your parents appreciated it! Love you
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