Birthday Surprise & Shower Gift

It was perfect. At a week before the surprise, I had it all figured out. Alyson would be at school all day so I would leave work early and drop off her specially made cake with balloons in her apartment using the key that she doesn't know I have. Never have all the pieces been put together so well for me to give someone a surprise on their birthday. Well, then a few days before her birthday, Alyson calls me up and throws a wrench into the whole works. "I'm gonna drop my chemistry class so now I will be free on Wednesday. Do you want to go to a digital scrapbook party that night?" Crap. Normally she has a lab from 2-5 but now that's gone so most likely she will be home when I want to drop off the stuff and then it won't be a surprise. Dang! Well, if she's home maybe I can set the stuff outside her door and do a ring and run. She'll probably go searching for a bit and I'm always terrible at ring and runs and always get caught. But I have to try. In addition to the cake and balloons I wanted to record myself singing Happy Birthday, which she will play after she has lit the candles.

So Tuesday night I make the cake. Stayed up a little later than I wanted to but I got a late start as I had gotten my hair done before. I had had the perfect cake in mind for Alyson's birthday since I saw the picture in a book months ago. It would have looked just like the cake in the picture, had I not been stupid and rushing and used frozen raspberries which leaked their juice over everything, but oh well it still looked okay.
The next day I went to work until noon stopped at Zurchers to get some helium balloons and then went home and put some finishing touches on the cake, recorded the song and made the cards that would accompany the cake instructing Alyson to light the candles and then press play on the recorder. I made two actually. One for if she happens to not be home and I get to leave the stuff on the counter and one for if she is home and I leave it outside the door. I was really praying she wouldn't be home when I got there.

After setting everything properly into my car and then filling up with gas I made the drive up to Ogden including the precarious drive westward on 3300 South where the whole road just seems to be covered in pot holes. Every bump I was sure would make the raspberries pop off, but they held strong. When I arrived at Alyson's apartment complex I drove around the other side of her building, in case she might be outside. I sneaked out the other side to get a glimpse to see if her car was there and lo and behold it wasn't!! Yay!! So I parked on the side of the building so she wouldn't see my car and gathered everything up and quickly walked to her door. Who knows how long she would be gone. I got out my secret key. I'm not really sure why I got the key but I've had it for about a year and never told Aly for just such an occasion as this. It worked and I was in. I set everything up to look nice and then went into Katie's old room to hide, hoping she wouldn't be gone too long. After a couple of minutes I decided to peek out the blinds on the window and just as I did I saw Aly pull into her parking spot. Okay this was it.

I stayed out of sight in the corner of the room and as I heard her open the door I even held my breathe a little. I couldn't really hear much for a few minutes but her moving around the living room. Then a small chuckle-maybe she had just read the card. I was worried she would think to call me and I hadn't turned my phone off so I tried ever so quietly to find my phone in my purse but my keys clinked a little. Around this time Aly had come down the hall to her bedroom and looked in the bathroom. I was so mad that she was searching the rooms. The point was for me to jump out after she had played the song. So she poked her head into Katie's room and found me. "You were supposed to do what the card said!" I said. Oh well, like I said it was almost perfect. So I watched her light the candles and we both listened to me sing Happy Birthday. Then we hung out the rest of the day. It was a lot of fun.

Also, this is a baby blanket that I made for Kaysie who is due with her first in April. A little girl to be named Sophia.
And this is showing the leaky raspberry juice that dripped all over the cake.