I can't believe we actually pulled it off!! Just over a month ago Joey and I successfully planned and hosted a surprise retirement party for my dad. In fact, it was a surprise for BOTH my Mom and Dad. It was honestly SO. MUCH. FUN! I've never planned a surprise party before and I think I might have had more fun than Dad in doing so.
My dad officially retired on April 3rd and I knew we just couldn't let us pass us by without a true celebration. About a month before it dawned on me that I could probably plan a party and I quickly called Joey to see if she'd willing to help. After a few quick calls and texts we were all set! All I needed to do was find the prefect venue (I already had one in mind), get the invites out and then wait for the big day to arrive.
Penny and Nate at Wishful were the most wonderful and gracious hosts for us. They opened a few hours early, just for our crew, so we had the whole place to ourselves (you know, the 50 of us!). I managed to sneak out of the house early on Saturday morning (under the guise of taking the dogs to the vet). I grabbed the cake and balloons and quickly tossed decorations up before rushing home to grab my wood cutting clothes and head out to help Ryan and my Dad all to make it look legit.
The best part was, my Dad thought it was HIS idea to go to Wishful that day. See, I figured I needed to explain why we were heading to Wishful hours before they opened, right when we should be wood cutting. Our normal routine is to cut for 4-6 hours in the morning on Saturday and then, in the afternoon, relax at home or head to Wishful for a drink or two. But, we wanted to get Dad there at 11am. So, I asked Penny to be a co-conspirator.
About a week before the event I asked Penny if she could invite my parents to a special "by invitation only" Customer Appreciation event at the brewery. Figuring my parents wouldn't be able to pass up an event like that, Penny hit send on the email and I waited for over 24 hours nervously hoping they'd take the bait before I got a call from Dad saying we had a little side event we'd need to go to on Saturday morning. I knew we had him at that point!
Back to the day of the party. So, after getting the decorations up I rushed out to cut wood so that I could nudge Dad out of the woods and into the truck in time for the big surprise. Not as easy as it seemed! Dad kept saying "It's ok if we're a little late"....Nope! Not Ok! The whole thing is for you! But he didn't know that. So, we jumped into the truck and headed over. Honestly, it couldn't have worked out better. The fake customer appreciation event explained the cars in the parking lot and as we pulled in Dad even said "oh, Ron and Carol are here already", totally not even noticing Joey's car that would have tipped him off immediately.
As Dad walked into the brewery it took him probably a full minute to realize he knew every single person in the bar. I think it wasn't until he saw Tom and Carolyn from Minneapolis that he realized something was up. At one point he said to me "My brain was going, I know you, I know you, I know you...wait...what customers DON'T I know here??" and then it started to sink in. I can replay those moments in my head like they were yesterday. It was honestly so much fun for me. There was so much love and so much laughter. It was amazing.
If there was just one thing I wished would have gone differently it's that Mom and the kids would have arrived all at the same time us us. The way it worked out, they were about 5 minutes behind us, so Mom got her own personal surprise as she walked in and started to process it just like Dad did. "Wait, everyone I know is here...what's going on" kind of thoughts were going through her head.
It was honestly a day I'll never forget and I know Dad says the same thing. I remember standing at my wedding looking around and realizing all of these people stopped everything else in their lives for that day to be here with me. As I looked around at this party I had those same thoughts! Tom and Carolyn came down from Minneapolis, Aunt Peggy from Milwaukee, Bart and Andy from southern Illinois, Joey and Andy from Iowa, Jamie and Zach from Burlington, Justin and Karen from the Quad Cities and so many friends from close by. People re-arranged their day and their weekend to help celebrate my Dad and this once in a lifetime event.
Once Wishful opened for their normal business hours it got crowded fast so I'm so thankful we had a location pre-planned for Party #2. George Hively, a good friend of my parents has a piece of property just a few miles down the road from Wishful. So we packed up the party and went there to continue the festivities. I'd asked anyone willing to bring some food to pass and we had beer/water/pop/juice. George even got out us Ranger so there were Ranger rides for all (mostly the kids).
All in all, it was seriously so much fun! But, I have to say, I was sure relieved when we walked into the bar and I could stop all. the. lies! So many lies. I had to explain away why Peggy was coming down, and why I thought we needed 8 lbs of brisket for dinner that night. I had to explain away why we were going to Wishful in the middle of wood cutting and why I needed to run into town that morning. It turned out to be so. many. little. lies and man am I glad that part is over. And! We didn't even slip up once. Mom and Dad said they had NO IDEA...not even an inkling that we had anything other than a normal weekend at home planned. So, I'll call this one a success!
Funniest part is, now anytime we're home Dad is suspicious of any plans we make. "Why do you want to go to Generations at 3 today?" HAHAHAHA! You never know when the next surprise party might hit!
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