A Surprising Party

Surprise birthday parties are supposed to be surprising. This is evident, even in the name: SURPRISE birthday party. This means that the planning must be done in such a way that the intended recipient of the surprise be unaware (unless, that is, you pretend to plan the surprise party for someone else, really meaning it for one of those involved in the planning). Our planning was complicated enough without that. But as you may have heard or surmised, as sometimes happens, this surprise party was...surprising, but not exactly as planned.

My brother turned 18, in March. But we started planning his party back in January or February, when we did Mercy's surprise party. At this time, we thought that, as unpredictable as March was, we should do his party in April instead. Of course, the Saturday after his birthday was perfect weather-wise, and April was cold and rainy. Still, how would we have gotten him out of working? So, for various reasons, it was Sunday, April 22.

Fifteen or so minutes before 4, Deanna went to Eric's room and asked him if he'd like to take a walk at the park. He agreed if Deanna would make him cookies upon our return. We did well at acting normal-commenting on Amy wanting to come, Dad saying, "You're going to the park? Because it's so nice and warm outside?", fussing at me when grabbing my camera to hurry up or they'd leave. Though the latter I could tell was fake, I'd never have noticed if I didn't know.

Deanna wasn't sure where the phone was, so she told Dad to call Stephen when we left.

For those of you who are not familiar with Secor Metropark, there are two parking lots at opposite sides of the park. We almost always come in from Wolfinger and park at the Walnut Grove parking lot. We don't take the trail that starts there, however; we walk past the graveyard, the Photo Center and the big rock to the trail that goes all the way around, past the Lone Oak parking lot, and back.

But Eric...

My brother, as Stephen said, is too stubborn for his own good.

He started going to the paths that start where we park. "That trail's too short," we said. "Let's go this way."

"No, we'll take the long trail," Eric said.

This would bring us the wrong direction onto where the group was hiding. This actually would have been okay, but we didn't know that...

We continued walking along the road, hoping Eric would decide to go along. Eric continued down the trail, assuming we'd follow as we normally would. At last, our vain hopes were shattered, and Melody ran after him, hoping to convince him without seeming unusual.

She didn't return.

So, I ran back to the trail. No one was in sight.

The trail just past the parking lot has a crossroads. To the right, it goes along past the graveyard and towards the trail we wanted to be on. To the left is where Eric wanted to go, where we normally end, not start. Straight ahead, it's straight. It's a cool path, leading directly to the other parking lot without a single curve.

This path was empty. Amy came, and I sent her down the path along the hill towards the graveyard, just in case Melody had convinced him to follow us and they had gone that way. They hadn't. The only other option was that they had gone down the long trail.

What to do? We opted to send Amy down the long trail, to hint to Melody-who may be still trying to turn him around-to simply continue, and Deanna and I ran down the straight path.

When we reached the parking lot, we wondered. Where were they? They didn't appear to be in the hiding place just beyond the bridge. We hurried to it, and there they were, sitting on the little rise in the woods. I didn't take a picture, but Mercy took some while they were waiting.

It was slightly surprising and amusing to see them all sitting there with their instruments.

The group included Blake, Eric's friend who moved several years ago and he had not seen for quite some time.

This is where they should have seen us.

"We have some complications," we told them. "Eric didn't cooperate."

As they were climbing out of the woods, guitars, mandolin, violin, and drum in hand, a guy and a lady passed. "Woah, you don't see that every day," or something to the effect, they said.

So, we walked down the trail, intending to meet them. It wouldn't be as sudden and close as we had intended, but it'd work.

We did make an interesting sight.

We came at last upon Amy. Alone. Surely she hurried ahead to warn us they were coming, I thought.

No. Poor Amy had hurried along that trail and never met them.

Deanna and I were rather stunned. Where in the world could they have gone? Unless they went off on some odd sidetrail, which seemed unlikely, no explanations came to mind. Surely they hadn't gone so far on the straight trail in that short time that we couldn't see them?

If we had a phone, we could call Eric, we thought. Stephen said he'd call Eric. But that wouldn't help... "What? He called me," Stephen said. So he called Eric back and we all listened to one side of the conversation.

"Hey, what's up? Where are you? You're at Secor Park too? Yeah, I'm here with Jonny and Parker."

At this we groaned. So much for surprises...

"Okay, we'll meet you." Stephen shut off the phone and said, "Hey, I didn't tell him anything he didn't already know. He saw our cars."

He was at the big rock, which is back at the beginning of the trail where we wanted to go originally. How he got there I could not imagine.

"Hey, there he is," we joked at the sight of someone I thought was a chubby kid, but they said was a little person. But immediately behind him they were coming along the trail. Eric said, "Should we run at them?" Melody agreed, so they came running.

They started playing and we sang happy birthday. "Blake!" Eric said.

(Unfortunately I forgot my camera was on manual, so the pictures at first are way over-exposed.)

He was happy to see Blake.

It wasn't a complete failure, for he said, "Well, this is rather suprising."

He told us what he had thought. Melody had inadvertenly agreed to go by the parking lot, forgetting the vehicles. Eric knows a lot of people's vehicles. "Hey, that looks like Stephen's vehicle," he said. He looked in the back. Guitar case. Good. Looks like Stephen's jacket. Better. Maybe Mercy's jacket. He looked in front. Two waterbottles. Must be the Olsons! And that looks like Jonny's car, and Parker's. Thankfully he doesn't know Blake's.

He knew something was up-all of them at the park and he knew nothing about it? A birthday party had crossed his mind, but he dismissed it as being too far away from his birthday. He thought Deanna knew something about it, but Melody convinced him that she knew nothing.

How had we missed them? Eric had suggested jumping the graveyard fence, and Melody, who had given up on turning him around lest she give it away, had happily agreed.

So, that was that, and we walked back to the parking lot.

They had seen Parker's jacket while they were walking, and Eric nearly picked it up.

Eric wanted to take Blake to see the church building as he had not yet, so we went.

Unfortunately, or maybe not, the door that formerly didn't lock properly was fixed, so we could only show him the outside.

Stephen and his new glasses and hat

Our hope still sprang eternal, and it was still unfulfilled.

Then we ran (well, the boys raced and we walked) down to the pumphouse to see the Pit of Despair.

The girls were freezing.

The hat looks better on Stephen...

Eric demonstrated the best way to strangle someone, and Parker was the available guinea pig.

At last we hurried for warmth.

Melody and Mercy demonstrated their skipping-backwards ability.

The guys demonstrated their ability (or their inability) to climb the rope Dad put up in the tree by the coop.

Unsurprisingly, Jonny and Stephen were good.

Eric...

We think Parker looks like Barney from Andy Griffith with the hat, which sort of reminds me of a police hat.

We entered the house to start a Euchre tournament.

Eric wrote down everyone's name, including Dad, and drew out the names for the teams.

Jonny diagrammed the games. We sat on the plywood floor, around the little white table, and around the piano bench.

Melody had made a cake the day before while we were gone.

Jonathan and Wesley came over later.

Here you are, Stephen. I forget what he was contemplating. Winning the game, perhaps? I happened to take a picture at just the right time.

We ate and did cake and ice cream.

Dictatorships were discussed.

Mercy explaining the dictatorial heirarchy to the Imperator.

Then, it was time for the bonfire.

Eric loves burning the old Christmas trees, and he had wanted to do it the last time we had a fire. "We should wait," we said, "till it's more dry." He had wondered that we cared, but let it go. We really were saving it for this night.

It was pretty neat.

After cake and icecream, no one really wanted any s'mores. We sang around the campfire, and the guys went back and climbed the rope. Soon it was over, and time to go home.

It was a little unconventional, but that's okay. Eric liked it, so it was a successful party.