We did it. We surprised the unsurprisable boy big time this weekend. He’s the kid who swears we have never been able to surprise him. And it’s not for lack of trying, I assure you. Every time, even since he was a tiny two year old, he’ll say “I know you aren’t going to believe me, but I knew in the back of my head that you were going to do this.” It KILLS me. Because he’s the kind of kid who would LOVE a surprise. But I really do believe him. In some way, he has always known something was up. We’ve never really gotten him. Until Saturday. Saturday we pulled one over on him. His tenth birthday is on the 22nd. That’s another post for another day, but ten is BIG, right? Worthy of being celebrated. He’s tossed around a thousand ideas of the type of party he wanted, but could never settle on the “just right” thing. January birthdays are kind of hard all the way around. The weather is super unpredictable but generally bad. Outside parties typically don’t happen, but honestly that’s the only thing my boy truly loves to do. No skating. No bowling. He wants to be outside. That makes January parties difficult. Two weeks ago I sent out a message to his friends’ mommas, telling them about the party and begging them not to tell their kids about it until the morning of. Oh, and asking them to join me in praying for good weather. They all kept the secret until the day of and even though the weather was just about as bad as it could be, it all worked out. Mak and CB spent the night with my parents on Friday. We told them that we had a Limited Edition on Saturday morning {that was true…for a dentist’s office} and that it would be more fun for them to not be here. We also told them that we were photographing some of their friends {also true} and that they might still be here when my parents brought them home. It was pouring BUCKETS when they got to the house. There were a couple of cars out front, but that didn’t throw up any red flags because we said we had a Limited Edition. He ran into the studio and about thirty of his friends jumped out and ambushed him. I will NEVER forget that face. He was SHOCKED. Blown away. SUCCESS!!!
I totally get why people hire me to photograph parties {and when I say me, I don’t mean just ME, but rather any photographer}. I have to admit, in the past it hasn’t really made much sense to me. I mean, that adds a lot of expense to a party, right? But I REALLY REALLY wish I had hired someone to photograph this one. There are next to no photos from this party because Ain’t nobody got time for that. I was too focused on Mak’s reaction to worry about things like proper exposure and, Oh, I don’t know, FOCUS. So the pics are awful. Lesson learned. I will ask photographer friends to his parties from now on. =)
It was AWESOME!!! He was SO Surprised! He even admitted to it this time. As I mentioned earlier, the weather was beyond horrible on Saturday afternoon. I had a giant freak out on Collin moment earlier in the week wondering what on earth we were going to do with all of those boys in our house. Thank the Lord for dads. He knew exactly what Mak would want and he was right. He set up an Air Soft shooting gallery in the studio. They shot at paper targets with various rodents printed on them, and played for the prize of a Sweet Frog gift card. best shot wins. Our neighbor Jack won. =) It kept the boys entertained for an hour and a half. Hallelujah!!!
The cake. I honestly had no idea what to do without asking Mak. His favorite colors are black and navy. What do you even do with that? We ended up with an Airstream cake and he loved it. Thanks to Freeman’s for helping me in my insane indecisiveness this past week.
And because it might be important to me when I’m 150 looking back at these posts, also on the party menu was chicken fingers and cheap chips. The boy LOVES cheap potato chips. You know what I’m talking about…the kind that are paper thin and crumble before you can get them to your mouth. I never buy them because OH MY WORD have you ever looked at the ingredients list?!? SO SO BAD. But he got them for his party. Happy Boy. There was nothing healthy on the table because I am not delusional. I knew there was no chance of it being eaten and I wasn’t going to waste my money.
Do you see that?!?! TEN CANDLES on that boy’s cake!! Great Glory, I can’t believe we’re already here.
THIS face. It’s the ONE. It will melt my momma heart into a puddle faster than anything else in the world. Good Gracious I love this boy. He’s mine. Pinch me.
It was the best day. He said so too. He had a blast and felt loved by the people who love him. That’s all I was hoping for. Birthday post coming later in the month when my heart can handle it. Now to enjoy the last nine days of my boy as a nine year old. 😉
