Happy 40th birthday, Josh!

A couple of weeks ago I had a surprise birthday party for Josh - it had been in the works for a couple of months (and even I was surprised how well it went). He didn't suspect a thing.

Way back in April I decided to put this party together and I emailed some friends, and I surreptitiously went through Josh's personal email list and invited some of his past co-workers and friends. Sneaky, aren't I?

Anyways, I told Josh that I was having a 'candle party' on June 7th (for those of you who don't know what a candle party is...think of a tupperware party, except with candles). I told him that it was women only and that he needed to be out of the house.

I was in contact with his best friend, D, (via email and phone - when Josh wasn't around) to try to devise a way to get Josh out of the house for a few hours, while I set everything up and got everyone into the house. I told D that I wanted him to pick up Josh, since I didn't want Josh to have access to the car and come home early. Dtold Josh that he had to take his mom out grocery shopping on Sunday morning and that since he was in the area, he would just pick him up.

D, who had laser eye surgery a couple days before the party, told Josh that he wanted his advice on new sunglasses and proceeded to take him around to a few stores to burn up some time. He even coerced Josh into taking his dog for a walk to waste more time.

His friend ended up calling me at one point (pretending that he was calling his mom) - he obviously couldn't tell Josh he was calling me. I also told Josh to call me before he was ready to come home because I needed him to pick up a few things for the 'candle party' (more coffee and milk).

Anyways, he eventually came home at about 1:45, everyone was in the house, and I had an old co-worker of his, B, open the door. He hadn't seen this guy in a couple of years (and he lives 2.5 hours away) so it was quite the shock when Josh eventually walked into the house. B, decided it would be funny when Josh unlocked the door, that he would press his shoulder into it, thereby not letting Josh into his house. Josh, at first thought the door was broken and he was kind of getting annoyed. When B finally let him into the house, Josh (in shock) saw him and said "B, what are you doing at a candle party?!"

He looked around the room and saw his friends and family and was in complete shock...to the point that he literally couldn't speak for about five minutes.

I can't believe how well it all turned out. Josh is probably one of the hardest people to fool!

Thanks to everyone who were able to attend, you really made the day extra-special. :)

A special thank you to Kaileigh and Sienna for Josh's special birthday hat. He really does love it. ;)

Happy birthday, sweetheart!