Great Success!

For those of you that know my Dad, he isn't easily surprised but my Mom and all us kids pulled a big one on him. He turns 60 on February 26 and to celebrate, my Mom put together a surprise party at a local restaurant. It has been in the works for several months now and I am amazed that there was no tip off or bungle that ruined the party. Regardless, it went perfectly and as he entered the restaurant, he was greeted by many of his friends and family. The look of shock on his face was priceless..... and once he realized what was happening, all he could do was give my Mom a big high five (a la Borat....hence the title of this post) and hug.
After that, it was on to the Grand Marniers and congratulations from all the revelers. We had gotten to the restaurant earlier in the day to decorate the room with streamers, flowers in watering pots painted especially for the occasion, and Happy Birthday signs. Lindsay (my sister) did a great job acting as the liason for the gathering and organized the invitations and RSVP list with a detail savvy mindset. Julia and I lent our artistic prowess to the invitations and watering pots as well as getting the tables ready for the celebration. But the biggest congrats has to go to my Mom for scheming the whole idea in the first place. I am sure she just about has an ulcer from having to remain tight lipped about the whole thing when she was around my Dad. She even went as far to delete her informational e-mails from the "sent e-mail" folder after she sent us a message about the party. Pretty sneaky.....I guess she picked something up from all those deviants she nabbed while working in security for Verizon. The evening closed with a gift extravaganza back at Chez Lehmann where my Dad got to see how much people really appreciated him being their family member and friend. I am sure he'll keep plenty busy planting all the flowers and hitting all the golf balls he's going to buy.