Servant of God: Celebrating Matthew’s 40th Birthday… Surprise..!

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Celebrating Matthew’s 40th Birthday… Surprise..!

Matthew told me that I wouldn’t be able to plan him a surprise party without him figuring it out… so I got to work planning the party. I knew that if I did it near his birthday he would be suspicious so on his birthday we stayed home and I brought home Applebees and movies for us to watch… the next day we went out to dinner just the two of us.

My original plan was to have the party during the Superbowl but too many of our friends were busy that day so we decided to postpone it for a couple weeks… but during the party Mariah and I came up with the perfect plan. She invited us back over to her house a couple weeks later so we could say goodbye to Celina and the kids before they headed home to Argentina.

For the next couple weeks I had to be very careful about leaving my phone around… I made sure to do everything over text and not Facebook messenger since he has access to my computer all day when I am at work. I also didn’t want to be too suspicious so I would send messages mostly when I was not around him so he wouldn’t ask who I was talking to. The closer it got to the date the harder it was to keep things quiet.

Matthew likes getting to places early so I had to be strategic on the actual day of the party. I made sure to save tasks until the very last minute… I decided to make up the nut mixtures that Celina likes for the party and give her bags to take home as a gift (since it was her going away party after all 😉 ) I made sure to leave a trip to Costco for the very end so if needed I could tell Matthew the lines were long and procrastinate inside the store.

We arrived at the party and Matthew called for the kids to come help bring in the food like he usually do but they were not so quick since they wanted to see his reaction… it took a couple steps before he realized that all the decorations said Happy 40^th birthday…. And then he saw the people…

Most of my family that lives in the area was able to come… even if only for a short amount of time between other activities. It was the first time that we saw David since he returned from his deployment… so I knew it would be special for Matthew to have him there…

Welcome Home David... so glad you guys made it to the party!

Josiah and Georgia

Kim and I

Matthew and Keb

Crazy Cousins...

Jimmy and Aliya

Of course, we also had our friends… the group that we have been hanging out with for the last few years. They have been alongside us for many of the difficult things and we have had the opportunity to celebrate many good things with them as well. It was the perfect amount of people at the party.

German did not disappoint with the food… it was absolutely delicious. Sarah and Chris brought the cake (and Apple Pie). It was the perfect party. Matthew was surprised and we enjoyed a good time with friends and family. We are blessed to be surrounded by so many that love us. May the next 40 years be just as blessed..!