By the middle of yesterday afternoon, it had cleared up and become really lovely outside.  Good thing, as we had big things planned for the evening.

My sister, Katie turns forty next week.  Her hubby, Mike, wanted to throw her a party but knew he couldn't swing it on her actual birthday, as that is the weekend of the twin cities marathon, one of the biggest events in the year for their running store, Gear.  Mike figured that throwing the party ten days in advance would sure surprise Katie and I can't believe he didn't spill the beans.

Katie loves parties.  She throws them all the time and never needs an excuse.  No one else in the family is real big on commemorating events, which is why Katie had to be in charge of our parents Golden Wedding Anniversary party last year.

When Jay turned fifty, I planned nothing.  The only reason we had a party was that his brothers all showed up here with food and drinks.  That's why tequila is no longer allowed around here.

Tequila is no longer allowed around Katie, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Katie got suspicious a week ago and demanded to know why none of her friends or family ever mentioned the fact that she'd be turning forty, FORTY, very soon.  She grilled her poor husband, and getting an unsatisfactory response from him, turned on her best friend, Liz.  Liz bled like a pig.  Who knew she had it in her?  Then she got on the phones and worked like a pro, giving the rest of us a head's up and warning us what was coming so by the time Katie got her mitts on her other best friend, Fran, we had been filled in on Liz's plan, which was basically to prevent Katie from finding out about Mike's plan.  I must admit, when Liz called me, all I could do was laugh.  I couldn't promise her anything because I'm a crap liar and besides, what do I care if Katie wants to spoil her own surprise?  But all the frantic phoning and planning worked like a charm!  Katie had no idea what was really going on.

Mike was on the phone with me several times during the afternoon, getting the timing right as far as how he would remove Katie from the house and how I would be there to let the party guests in.  I hid around the corner, feeling like Agent 99 while Mike and Katie piled all the kids into the car and took them to Karate.  When I knew they were out of sight, I ran into the house and was followed in short order by Lucia, Fran, Woody, Mom, Liz, MJ and an assortment of other pals and family members.  We blew up balloons and hauled out decorations all over the back yard like we were on a game show. Mike had given each of us assignments to get the party ready in the twenty minutes it took to drop the kids at karate.  It all went off like an episode of Mission; Impossible and Katie never would've suspected a thing.

If Lucia hadn't left her purse in plain sight right by the front door.

Ah, no matter.  Katie laughed until she cried as we all shouted surprise and then Kent showed up with the food. 

Any party catered by Frankie's is a good party.

But that was just phase one.

At seven, a big green party bus showed up and it was time for phase two.  Not everyone could join in phase two, so they stayed and ate the pizza and about ten of us jumped on the bus and took off.

Katie demanded to know where we were going but not even Liz would talk.  Eventually the bus stopped and Katie looked out the window.  Then she turned to me and screamed "We're at Keegan's!  And it's THURSDAY!!"

"yes it is." I said, being all cool.  Then I missed the step, slid out of the bus and landed on my butt.  I am sooo smooth in heels.

Inside Keegan's we met up with several of our blogger buddies including Mitch and Swiftie.  We were in time for trivia and we tried to play but we couldn't hear the questions because we were all laughing too hard to listen.  So we just began to fill in blanks with the funniest things we could think of.  By then we were all half in the bag so I'm sure what we thought was the height of wit was completely stupid.  In the middle of trivia, everyone took a break to sing Happy Birthday to Katie.

When the bus showed up, I felt kind of like a character out of Heart and Souls, but Robert Downey Jr. was nowhere in sight, so I hopped on board.

Our next site wasn't Heaven but the next best thing; the American Legion Hall in St. Louis Park.  We were in time to watch the Twins play on the big screen, have a pizza and some beer and do a little karaoke.

Karaoke is Katie's favorite pastime. 

No one in our family can sing, but we're fairly comfortable with making a spectacle of ourselves, so karaoke is perfect.  Everything was great until the tequila.  Turns out when you're a size two, a shot of really good tequila can knock you right on your ass and keep you there for about twenty four hours.  I'm not a size two, so I was good.  

Out on the dance floor it was singing and dancing but according to Fran it got all Twin Peaks in the ladies room.

By 10 p.m., our birthday girl was slouched beside the commode, locked in a stall and no longer singing ABBA songs.  MJ and Fran actually had to drag her by the legs under the door to get her out of the biff.

Katie told me this morning (two days after the fact) that she doesn't remember anything after sliding to the floor and thinking, as her face settled on the cool tile, "this feels good...".

Now that's how you celebrate forty years on Earth.

The best part of the evening is that it was early.  I was home by 11:00.  MJ and Kent were right behind me because Zack was babysitting Annie.  He's her favorite cousin.  I walked into the house and found Zack and Jay in the tv room, watching the Twin's after game show.  Jay had the baby sound asleep and tucked into his arm.  He looked like there was no where on earth he would rather be.  I had thought during the course of the night that I'd be having even more fun if Jay were there, but one look at him and I knew he wouldn't have enjoyed the night nearly as much. 

So the surprise was a success and a good time was had by all.

And Katie must never drink tequila again.

 

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