Foodie Chickie

This past Saturday Niel had a day of celebration in honor of his 30th birthday this coming Tuesday. I wanted him to start off his 30's with a blast. To know that he is loved and appreciated by so many people. Niel has surprised me in the past with two surprise birthday celebrations and the times I have tried to surprise him they did not work. But this past Saturday I did manage to surprise him from one of the two things I had planned. Keeping it a secret from Niel was killing me!
I had a lot of help though. People knew for a while the day was coming and kept it a secret. Saturday we went to New Roc City on the pretense that we can drive go-carts to let off some steam. It has been a bit stressful at work lately for Niel. But in reality I asked his friends to meet us there as well to surprise him. Luckily Dave, Holly, Mike & Erin were able to make it. But Niel figured it out when instead of casually leaving I said we had to leave by 11 and made him change his shirt. It was ripped, which really did not matter cause he didn't take his coat off. We all had fun goofing around driving go carts, bumper cars and playing video game. I did bump into the wall at the go-cart track and hurt my knee pretty good. It is sore, achey and swallen. But I am so pale it doesn't show well in the pictures I tried to take. And it hurts in this 12 degree weather. I symphatize with Niel. I even had neat shirts printed up at Cafe Press that Niel's brother Mike designed. And we chowed down on some tasty Mexican food. Even though Niel figured it out we had fun and I still had one more shot at surprising him.

Later on was a bit more of a formal dinner at Durow's (we had our reception there). I told Niel we were meeting Ted and Maria there under the pretense that they couldn't make it to New Roc but wanted to see us. Niel was tired from the day (not smart planning on my part) and I forgot the rest of the balance ( I saved for a looong time) for Durow's, so we had to drive all the way back and Niel got even grumpier. I can't believe he did not figure it out. But he was a bit sleepy. I was stressed out cause we kept hitting all the lights while there was a room full of people waiting and starving at Durow's who arrived early. We finally arrived and his mom, his brother Mike, Erin, my parents, Mike and Rachel, my brother's girlfriend Christine, Ted and Maria, Dave and Holly, Kelvin and Jennifer and Renzo yell surprise!!! My brother arrived but got called to work and had to leave. Which sucks but what can one do? Even though it was a late start to the evening it was a fun to see everyone. I also felt bad jumping from one table to the other, but there were so many people to see. And I hope they all had fun! I only have a few pics from New Roc cause the battery died and I forgot my purse in the car while at Durows so didn't take any pictures there. See more stupid planning. As soon as people send me pics I will post those. But I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone again who helped to pull this off and who were able to make it. I know some had to drive far. I really appreciate it and I know Niel does as well.