SURPRISE!

Last I left off I said I was going to get to Saturday's big event, but I really shouldn't skip Friday. It was a very full day. You see, we (Chloe & Sophie) had this surprise party planned for Brandon, and they needed me to help pull it off (I have money and a car to get to the stores). I spent the morning getting all the last minute shopping done, but of course, I forgot one major ingredient. We ran over to the neighbor's to borrow a can of sweetened condensed milk. Then we made a cake, blew up all the balloons, got the treat bags put together. I still needed to make the pie, but there just wasn't time. On top of everything, Brandon decided he wanted to come home early that day, so that made us really crunched for time. I think he could sense I was a little stressed when he got home, but I couldn't tell him why! I just had to get to work making a giant soup for our ward activity. Normally I wouldn't have put that kind of pressure on myself, but knowing they were having a chili dinner I wanted to make sure there was at least one vegetarian option, so I signed up to bring one. We let the girls get a few treats (5) from the trunk or treat, and donated all the really nasty ones to their friends!

Saturday morning was again a little stressful. I had told Brandon I needed him to come with me to run an errand, but he wasn't understanding that he needed to come when I was ready. He kept dilly dallying. Plus, I got three phone calls that morning! That was kind of a heads up that something was going on. I never get phone calls, so it was quite out of the ordinary. Once he figured out something was up, he was happy to oblige with my demands.

We went for a walk, and hung out at Cabela's while the girls threw everything together at home. When I got the phone call from Sophie that everyone had arrived, we headed home. Brandon confessed that he was nervous because of the time sensitivity of everything, he thought there might be people showing up. I told him not to be nervous, so I had him for a second, and then we turned the corner and he saw Jason & Shalee's van parked right in front of our house! His nerves came back. But he was still really shocked when he saw everyone else who showed up (My parents, grandma, Lark, Nigel, & the Stephens family).

I think the party was a hit. The girls had a blast. They planned a lot of fun things. The food was good. Oh, I forgot to mention the pie. I had to make it Saturday morning (with him at home). The sweetened condensed milk my neighbor gave me was bad, so we went to another neighbor. They didn't have any or any evaporated milk. I already had the crust laid out on the counter, so in a hurry I made up a substitute (dry milk mixed with coconut milk). I had no idea if it would work, and since I don't eat pumpkin pie I didn't even try it, but nobody seemed to notice my creation. I guess it worked.

So, after the party we all went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes. I knew it was Kellie's favorite, I knew my grandma liked it, and I knew Brandon was a fan, so I made the suggestion. He didn't turn it down, and we all had a great time. Our guests all had a long way to head home, so we said our goodbyes there. And I'm going to add a great big "THANK YOU" here, to everyone for coming. I know my girls are cute, but I'm amazed at what people will do to make them happy. And I know Brandon sure appreciated everyone who came.

Pictures of the party can be found at this link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104575878071086913858/albums/5804563025122208705?authkey=CIXh3JmozpvnGg