Annika turned fifteen at the end of the January. I tried to convince her to let me take her to the Monkey King for her birthday present. “Dad,” she responded “I want to go to The Monkey King (kind of), but not for my birthday.” Fair enough, Annika, fair enough.
What she didn’t know was that I was conspiring with three of her friends to put together a surprise birthday party for her. I secretly emailed them with the the idea, offered to pay for big chunks of it, and then let her three friends take it from there.
As instructed, I got our family over to the Belair bowling alley at 2:00 on Saturday. Twelve of her friends jumped out from behind a rack of neon-colored bowling balls and yelled “Surprise!”
She was.
After bowling, Julie, Elise, and I went back to the apartment while her friends took her to New Town Plaza mall to do a scavenger hunt they had put together. That was followed by icecream and lots of StickyPics in one of those little photo booth with the tiny curtain.
Finally, at about 7:45, they all came back to the apartment for pizza, cake, and a rousing round of Annika trivia.
Annika felt loved.
Thanks Maggie, Sarah, and Harry. You guys rock.
-Jack
I don’t know why moms are always complaining about having to plan kids’ birthday parties. All you have to do is send one email to three highly competent ninth-graders and then order the pizza.Done.
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