Ryan's Surprise 30th Birthday Party

I had been planning to give Ryan a surprise party for his 30th probably since I turned 30 almost 2 years ago. This spring I made the mistake of telling Benjamin about it. Who would have guessed a then 3 year old couldn't keep a secret? Luckily Benjamin had been watching a "Max and Ruby" episode at the time about Ruby's surprise party so I was able to cover it up. I then didn't tell Benjamin ANYTHING else about the party. It was kind of sad because he was still up in the quad riding his bicycle when everyone yelled "surprise", so he doesn't even really know daddy had a surprise party after all!
I was worried no one was going to come to the party because it was 5 minutes after I asked people to arrive and there was only 1 family who had shown up. We did have the perfect small group of guests in the end. Ryan and Kendall ended up being 40 minutes late to the party because they had walked Stacy up to the Missionary Training Center so she could help new missionaries with their Indonesian and Benjamin had insisted on taking his bicycle. Ryan's mom had texted Ryan's brother to see where they were at and Kendall's response was "the boys are being difficult." My children were good birth control for Kendall that day.

It was kind of funny because Ryan ran into some guests on the way to the laundry room. It was a guy from his Chaplain program and his wife. J.D. told Ryan he was going to dinner at one of the other Chaplain guy's places (who happened to be in Idaho at the time, which Ryan knew... this wasn't the best time for a party because it was during the semester break). Luckily, Ryan just figured he had the date wrong.
Because Ryan was so late arriving, the kids at the party were getting antsy. I had intended to have the door open when Ryan came down the stairs, but it was so noisy that I missed my window. Ryan was at the last washer wondering where Stacy's laundry was when he heard "Surprise!" from across the hall. I ended up having to usher the party into the laundry room and yelling "surprise" a second time for Ryan to figure out what was going on. I didn't get a good photo of his initial reaction, but I don't think his expression changed too much.
This is the poster I made for the party. Ryan asked what the poster board was for when I brought it home from the store. I said it was for a project Benjamin and I were doing. He didn't ask anything else. I was going to include Benjamin so there were no lies, but Alexander threw a fit when I took the poster away from him after he danced all over it and tried to carry it off... After that, I figured it was just easier to assemble it alone. I was sad to see that I unintentionally didn't print/include a single photo of Ryan with his brother Alexander.
Benjamin looks ready for cake!
I was hoping the candles wouldn't set off the fire alarm in the building (and they didn't). There's a rule against candles in the buildings and someone had told me people have always done it anyway, but I think it's been for 3-4 year old parties and not 30! Ryan did blow wax all over the cake and I'm amazed people ate it anyway!!!
The party must have been meant to be because I got a free cake (great news for a party on a poor college student family's budget), our neighbor who had the keys to the basement just happened to be outside when I needed to find him, and Ryan was clueless. It really helped having his family in town and being 8 months pregnant so I had an excuse not to go swimming on Friday and to lunch on Saturday. I needed the extra time to get things ready. I am also grateful Ryan doesn't check our financial accounts AT ALL. It definitely made things easier, but it is a little scary about how oblivious we can be to the events around us. I wonder what goes on around me that I have no clue about!?! I am glad the party is over and I was able to come clean on my phantom Facebook account and changed e-mail password. It was hard doing some of the planning, including hijacking Ryan's Facebook account without feeling like I was doing something nefarious.
Ryan really enjoyed the party and might even end up liking birthdays after all. (He's despised them since his 17th birthday when EVERYONE forgot until a week later). People are so great too... Like I said, we had the perfect group of guest at the party and Ryan's gotten gifts and cards from people we never would have expected. Thanks for your generosity!!!!