Surprise!

We recently hosted my seven year old daughter’s birthday party and barely survived.  Imagine hosting a party for my boisterous, energetic son, times five. Not a pretty picture. So we convinced our son that instead of having a party we could go away for a family celebration, like to a water park hotel. He was sold.

Then two weeks before his birthday I received my weekly Top 20 email from Travelzoo.com. Next thing I knew, we had a trip to Disneyworld booked for my son’s birthday.

So now the task was keeping it a secret, for two weeks. My husband and I use to call each other on the phone during the day with little messages like “I’m going away and I can’t tell anyone where”, or “M-I-C—K-E-Y—M-O-U-S-E”. To be honest, I never thought we’d make it; either my husband and I would crack. And there have been a few slips, thankfully unnoticed.

Our first obstacle was the border crossing into New York State (see we were staying overnight in Buffalo and flying out the next day to Florida). As my husband was telling the boarder guard our plan, my seven year old let out a little squeal. Damn, so close. I look back to my relief to find out she was excited about a move she made on her DS game. Phew.

My husband and I were so excited about our plan, we didn’t really think how the kids would react when  they discovered their  plan, going to the waterpark hotel, wasn’t going to happen. Pulling into the Red Roof Thursday night, my son was a little disappointed, to say the least. It was so hard keeping things a secret with my son’s sad face in the back of the van.

But come Friday all was revealed and I’m glad we waited. (Though I have to point out the secret was revealed by a woman in the airport line and not us. Oh well).

We're going where?

Of course now we’ve set a terribly high bar when it comes to birthday celebrations. I’m  expecting my three year old to request her birthday be celebrated in Hawaii now.