Lou's 40th birthday was on December 13th! Yes...this post is a bit late. Like always.
I had asked Lou for a few months what he wanted to do for his birthday...since it was a big one, but he always told me nothing. I knew he wasn't too excited to turn 40 (and I could understand since I just turned 30 in August and really dreaded it), but after all he's been through this year I thought we just have to do something.
Right after my Father-in-law passed away I decided that we should have a party for Lou. Something small with just his close friends and family. I know that at times it has seemed like we're going through so many horrible things (especially this last year), but we do have some really special and sweet people in our lives, and I knew they'd be excited to celebrate Lou's birthday with him.
I knew he wouldn't go for it so right away I decided that the party had to be a surprise. My sister and I came up with a list of people and a loose plan of how to surprise Lou. I decided to tell Jackson about our plan...I know...A little risky telling a 6 year old about a surprise party that wasn't happening for about two weeks. But believe it or not, he did not tell. He kept the entire party a secret and even made up a few stories of his own to throw Lou off.
Lou and I have been dieting since August and he has actually done a fantastic job sticking to his plan so when it came time to plan the menu I was glad that he had decided to break his diet for the weekend of his birthday. Lou had said that he wanted to eat Chinese food for his birthday...just the three of us. I decided to add to that and make sure he had all of his favorite foods...If he was going to break his diet I wanted him to get a taste of all his favorite things. I ordered beerocks from The Beerock Shop. I ordered his (our) favorite cake from Charlotte's Bakery.
***NOTE: If you live in the Fresno area you should definitely try Charlotte's Bakery. You will NEVER order a cake from another bakery. I ordered sushi from Mr. Sushi. I made our family favorite "Mexican Pizza." I got shrimp cocktail from Costco. My sister made her fabulous mac & cheese, and our friend Corona made Lou's favorite Spanish dish...Chicken & Rice. Oh yeah...and we had so much Chinese food.
My Mother-in-law was so excited about the party. She knew that Lou really needed a pick me up after such a crummy year, and we began talking "in secret" about the party every chance we got. We invited one of Lou's best friends, Kristi. She and Lou have been friends for a lot of years. We went to her wedding right after we started dating and she and Phil came to our wedding a couple years later to share in our special day. We invited Lou's (and my) friends Skip and Corona and their two boys, Jack and Antonio. Lou and Skip went to high school together and are still great friends. We love spending time with them and Jackson just loves their boys. We invited Lou's colleague, Drew and his wife Leslie. Drew teaches next door to Lou and has become one of Lou's best friends. He has really helped Lou out a lot this year and he and his wife have become great friends to us...we really enjoy spending time with them. We invited Beth...one of Lou's other colleagues and a great mentor for Lou. She really has been one of Lou's biggest cheerleaders since he's been at Clovis High. I know it meant a lot to Lou to have her here. We invited my family...Bobby, my mom, Brittany and Chris (Brit's boyfriend). We invited Adrienne & Tara. Adrienne is one of my best friends and she has become so dear to our family. She has been there for us through a lot of crap and she is always willing to help out...even when we don't ask her. And my mother-in-law Bev was there too. I know Lou was so happy to have her here for his birthday.
We had the party on a Saturday night before his actual birthday (his birthday was on Sunday). That day was kind of crazy...Lou's debate team had a tournament at Clovis East. Drew was covering for Lou that day because Lou knew we had plans. He rested most of the day while Jackson and I ran around town. One crazy thing that happened...a few days before the weekend I got the idea to call Bound By Tradition....Lou had been talking about getting a memorial tattoo for his Pop. I knew he kind of wanted to get the tattoo for his birthday, but hadn't really made the plan. So I called Jason to see if by chance he had any openings on his actual birthday. He has worked on Lou before and really likes Lou. He asked me what was going on and I told him what Lou wanted. I told him I would stop by his shop Saturday and find out if he could make the appointment work. He thought he might be able to move some people around and get Lou in for his birthday.
Well, wouldn't you know...Lou woke up Saturday and said, "I'm going to call Jason and see if he can get me in today....I really wanted to get a tattoo for my 40th birthday and I know he's busy, but maybe he had a cancellation." I tried to discourage it, but didn't want to be too suspicious. Lou called and left a message for Jason and I got dressed quickly and Jackson and I headed down to the tattoo shop right away. I know what you're thinking...You took Jackson to a tattoo shop? Well, I didn't think that through really...we were only there for a few minutes...and it's really clean.
Anyway, I got in and as soon as I saw Jason I said "did you call Lou back?" He said No! he was waiting for me to get there because he didn't want to ruin the surprise. He wasn't able to get Lou in for his actual birthday, so I told him to just call Lou back and set up something with him. My mother-in-law was going to give Lou the money for his tattoo for his birthday in a card.
Okay, so Jackson and I ran around ordering and picking up food for the party and hiding it all at Brittany's. Around 5:00pm Brit came over to babysit Jackson so that Lou and i could go to my work Christmas party. We had planned to just go for cocktails so that we could have a quiet evening at home to celebrate Lou's birthday. While we were at the party Brittany and Jackson and Adrienne and Tara got the house ready for the party. Our guests all arrived around 6:30 and my mother-in-law picked up food on her way.
We left the Christmas party around 6:45 and ordered a couple of plates of our favorite Chinese food. We went to pick it up and headed home. I was texting Brittany on the way and Lou looked over at me and asked what I was doing. I made up something silly and tried to act cool. Once we turned on to our street there were cars everywhere. I'm lucky that our neighbors have a lot of parties...Lou just thought the neighbors were partying.
We got out and headed up our walkway. Lou opened the door and Brittany and Jackson were in the living room. As we walked into the house further Antonio popped out and Lou thought Skip and Corona and the boys came over. As soon as he turned his head and looked down our hallway...he saw a crowd of friends and everyone yelled SURPRISE! It was great. Lou looked at me and said, "We don't have enough food for all these people."
Oh, but we did have enough food for everyone...and then some. We broke our diet for a couple of days.
Lou had a fun party with his best friends and family. It was a great success and he says he had NO idea. He couldn't believe Jackson knew about the party and never told.
Honey, I love you. Sorry this post was late going up. I'm glad that you had a great birthday and that you loved all of your gifts. I sure love you and am so proud to call you my husband. Happy Birthday!
Jackson and I made a fabulous Gingerbread house. We had a lot of fun decorating it and I was atually kind of sad to see it go after Christmas. 
While we were setting everything out we heard some jingle bells and a "Ho Ho Ho!" coming from the trees. We were worried that Santa was already making his rounds in Clovis, but discovered that it was a false alarm. 
