Happy 30.5!

This past weekend, I threw Luke a surprise birthday party. His birthday is in September, so I figured I could pull off the surprise (who expects a birthday party 6 months and 2 weeks late?). Luke's milestone 30th birthday fell at a pretty bad time last year. Emily had arrived only 5 days prior, and we still had a lot of uncertainty about her prognosis. Additionally, I had only been home from the hospital for 2 days and couldn't drive anywhere to get anything for him. We had a slice of cake and sang "Happy Birthday." Whoo-hoo. That was about it.


My plan was to have Luke's brothers and a couple of his friends meet at the Buffalo Wild Wings near our house around 5:30 on Saturday night. I would pretend to order take-out food from Buffalo's and have it "ready to pick up" at 6:00. Then Luke would show up to "pick up" the food, the guys would all be there, and he'd stay for a while I took care of the bedtime routines at home. I wanted to pay for the event, so Saturday afternoon I slipped out to purchase a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card for $250 and left it at the front counter at Buffalo's for Luke to pick up after the surprise.

Everything was falling into place. We even had a great excuse for eating later than usual: Butler was playing Florida and the game went into overtime, finishing around 6:00. Perfect. I "called" our order in at at about 5:30 and Luke left shortly after 6:00 (it's about 2 min. from our house). He didn't suspect anything.

Thirty seconds after he left, I got a phone call... it was Luke calling. He couldn't possibly be there yet, I thought, so I answered.

"Hey," he asked, "did you go to Buffalo Wild Wings today?"

Uhhh... what?!? How did he get there so fast?? "Why do you ask?" I cautiously questioned.

"Well, I just wondered if you bought a gift card" he replied.

How fast did he drive?! Is he there already?? Has he already been surprised? "Are you there?"

"No, I'm still driving. There's just a receipt for a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card here. Did you want me to use that? It's worth quite a bit."

AHHHH!!! I left the receipt for the gift card on the passenger seat. Who even looks at papers left lying on the passenger seat, huh? Apparently Luke does.

"Um, yeah, just use that. It's at the counter at Buffalo Wild Wings." ???? I hang up.

So by this time, I'm pretty sure Luke thinks he has a CRAZY wife who goes out and buys $250 gift cards to Buffalo Wild Wings with no explanation, and I'm just hoping that he doesn't suspect anything. Luke tells me that he didn't expect a party at all, just a crazy wife. :)

Luke was surprised and had a great time at his party. I'm so glad. He's an amazing husband and daddy to our kids, and he was long-overdue for a night out. Happy 30.5, Luke. We love you!!