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I can’t believe it. I had been planning a surprise party for Ellie for weeks. Ellie knew what kind of party it was going to be (we started the tradition of having the 13th birthday at a hotel with Jill) but she didn’t know WHEN it was going to be.
I worked it all out with her friends and had them meeting at somebody else’s house. I had our excuse to go there covered, I had the hotel decorated, I had the cake pops made, etc. I did ALL of that without her knowing. It was awesome!
And then I blew it…When Ellie got home she found the packing list I’d made for the party. I think I’d talked my way out of that one but then, on the computer, she found the tags I’d made for the scavenger hunt. What?!? So dumb! I’d made it so far!
Oh well, she WAS really surprised in the end and it didn’t matter because she had all her buds there to celebrate with her.
This was the big transition year to teenager so we had our fun at a hotel. Complete with pool time, spa goodies, her favorite candy, pizza and a scavenger hunt. What more could a 13 year old want? Well, less time with her parents. Mr. Fun left after evilly laughing about all the trouble the girls had with the scavenger hunt and I hid out in the bedroom part of our suite.
I guess we wore them out with all the scavenging and swimming because everybody was asleep by 11. But their middle school bodies were so used to being up early for school that they were chatting and giggling by 6am. So glad they wanted nothing to do with me at THAT time!
Given the level of chattiness in our normally quite middle child I’d say it was a success. Here are my favorite pictures…