Surprise Birthday Party

Discussion in 'Community Chit-Chat' started by nuss, Jun 6, 2014.

  1. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    Last Friday, I arranged a birthday party for my husband’s mid 30 birthday. Yeah, I know it wasn’t a big 3-0 or 4-0 birthday but hey, that’s what makes a surprise even sweeter.
    True to my nature of being spontaneous, I didn’t plan anything up until a week before. I was toying with the idea but no concrete plans. Friday before the party (exactly a week before), I sent out an email to our friends and a face book message to those who weren’t on my mailing list (you guessed it right, hubby’s friends). It’s kind of funny that DH went to school (undergrad and master’s at the university where we work now) here, then moved out and came back and so did several of his friends. I guess, once a Midwestern is always a mid-western. I invited total 17 of our friends and except for one (she had a vacation planned with her kids), all came.
    Food: I knew that I had to order the food because-1) I am not a good cook and 2) I can’t even think of cooking for 20 people. A friend’s husband is a SAHD and an excellent cook. He works at Indian restaurant whenever they need extra help so I knew I could ask him. We met on Monday and talked about menu. He was really excited and kept on coming up with all sort of dishes but I knew my DH’s favorites and wanted to stick with those. It was kind of nice too. He made some money and I got authentic Indian food catered (DH loves Indian food).
    Menu:
    Salad bar: baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, pecans, raisins and honey-ginger dressing (I made the dressing)
    Appetizers- Samosa with tamarind and mint+ cilantro chutney; Chicken kababs
    Entrée- Butter chicken, spinach and dal, Mint Raita, Rice, butter naan
    Dessert- Kaju katli, Gulab jamun, cake, mango-coconut icecream and fruits
    I made rice, spinach-dal, raita and cake. I bought kaju katli and rest everything was catered.
    Drinks: Since we had a mixed group (including kids), I kept several options. The regular flair- coke, sprite, root beer and juice. Champagne, sparkling non-alcoholic beverage (Mango-passion fruit flavor was a big hit). Dos Equis is one of our favorite beers and I went with that. For wine, I had both red and white. I asked my wine enthusiast friends about what goes well with Indian spices and they suggested Riesling and Merlot. We also had a few bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandels that we bought from our winery tours in California. One of the guests (our Colombian friend) brought some Colombian lager and another couple brought Whisky and Pinot noir. So, we had quite a variety.
    Cake: it was his favorite death by chocolate with mint filling and mint icing I made a “catch of the day” (fish) cake.
    I took the day off to clean our house and arrange everything. After dropping my son at the day care, I made a quick run to the grocery store to buy few of the ingredients and started the cake. When cake was baking, I made dal and raita. I started rice half hour before the guests were suppose to arrive. In the meantime, I cleaned our living room, kitchen and guest bedroom etc. Set the lawn chairs and a table in backyard. I kept chalkboard, chalks and some riding toys for kids in the backyard. We also have a swing set so it was plenty to keep 6 kids entertained. I set up the table, showered, and picked up my son from the daycare. It was 5 by the time we get home. My friend was supposed to bring food around 5:30 but he didn’t show up until 6:30. My guests started coming at 6, I was a little panicked.
    I wasn’t expecting DH to come home before 7 because he was leaving for 10 days on Monday so I was sure he had lot of last minute stuff to deal with. I got a call from my friend (same friend whose husband cooked the food) at about 6:20 that they are in our neighborhood and DH is right in front of them. He was quite confused to see all the cars parked on the street and his friend’s van in our driveway. He had to park in the street. As soon as he opened the garage door, everyone shouted, “Happy Birthday”. It took him a few seconds to register what was going on. It was fun watching his confusion turning into a big smile.
    I requested my guests not to bring any presents but few of them brought cards and we had fun reading the cards. Although I was a little annoyed by my friend and her husband for being late but food was excellent.
    The best part: my son kept on saying- “Happy Bashee daddy (Happy Birthday, daddy)”. I bought a fish eye lens and few other photography equipments that he wanted to buy for some time and asked my another friend to make a coffee mug that my son gave to his daddy.
    Here's my cake:

    DSCN3515.JPG

    I need to take picture of the mug. It is so cute.
     
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  2. ammulur

    ammulur Platinum IL'ite

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    Very lovely explanation and arrangement dear......!
    The Cake looks very nice........ we missed a bite.....!

    Many More :birthday...........! Have a wonderful year ahead.........!
     
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  3. Arunarc

    Arunarc Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Hello Nuss

    That was a great spread of food and drinks. The way you have written feel like I too was there with you:).
    Enjoyed the variety of drinks:biggrin2:

    Belated birthday wishes to your DH.
     
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  4. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you, ammulur and Aruna!
     
  5. Stephanie08

    Stephanie08 Bronze IL'ite

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    You are such a sweet wife I'm sure your DH is very happy to have you. You had a very great idea too. I'm planning to throw a surprise birthday party for my brother too because it his 30th birthday this coming month and your post will be a very big help for me. Thanks!
     
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  6. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    Stephanie- glad I could help! Thanks for the nice words. You are a wonderful sister.
     
  7. chandans

    chandans New IL'ite

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    Wow! Such a nice surprise party! :)
    I remember the one we threw our grand parents on their 50th anniversary.
    We all wished them in the morning & did a nice pooja at home. Then at the evening we all went for a big family dinner.
    We all gave loads of gifts & hugs to our grand parents.
    I had a special surprise planned for my Dadi. I remembered her telling me how she used to long for good sandal agarbathies while doing her pooja! So I gave her a cycle pure pooja pack gift hamper & loads of Sandlum agarbathies! She was really happy :)
     

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