It’s hard to believe that we are entering the last week of October… Oct 22nd is the day that 14 years ago…I became a mom! Not sure what I more crazy… that he is turning 14 years old, or that in only 2 short years, he will be driving! Yikes! In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, eric and I decided to get a bunch of his friends together and surprise him! Being a Sat night, it would perfect for a party… and being so close to Halloween, what better kind of party, than a Zombie ‘flash mob’ party!
Of course, nothing can be simple! It was also ‘October Break’ and so Thurs/Friday the kids were out of school. The plan was for me to take the 3 youngest kids to St. George for a little R&R, and the boys would be at a Rugby clinic Fri/Sat. So, all the orchestration was happening ‘remote’. Luckily, we had a few really great kids that managed to spread the word, and facilitate all the communication with 23 teenagers WITHOUT facebook! I was able to line up a choreographer, make up artist and ice cream machine---all with only 48 hour notice and a couple calls.
Keeping it all a secret from Colton is really where the trick came in! the challenges included (and not limited to) : 1. Making sure that Capri and Connor kept their little mouths CLOSED 2. I could wake up early enough to drive home from St. G on sat, and meet up with eric perfectly in order to coordinate pick up and drop off of the ice cream machine and 15 passenger van – and get him back to the Rugby camp with out the boys wondering where he went… and 3. Getting Colton home from Rugby, showered, and back out the door to see a movie that he “didn’t want to see” quick enough to give me TIME to get all the furniture rearranged, house decorated, ice cream machine set up, toppings prepped and all the kids in the house! (HUGE thanks to my folks who arrived just in time to help with all of the above including vacuuming and taking Capri, Connor and Quincy out of the equation)
Mission Accomplished… pretty much all the kids arrived before 7:15. Most of the cogs to the whole project were in motion… Ani (one of the instructors from my Gym) came to teach the kids a dance – after the kids were all outfitted with Zombie Make up thanks to a make up guy from one of the local haunted houses—our plan was to hit a grocery store or 2 and do a ‘flash mob’ style dance. I have to hand it to the kids- cause they definitely got the dance dialed in and they were stoked.
I am sure it goes with out saying, but the soft-serve icecream machine was a big hit! We had oreo, butterfinger, reeses, kit kat, marshmallows and Halloween sprinkles to top choc or vanilla or swirl!
I knew that something would got NOT as planned, and the Make up guy did get lost, and set us back a little… as well as my not arranging for music on the go for the dance!—the good news is that we were behind sched a little, but the manager at Smiths totally let us play the music over their intercom… and Ani arranged for a big boom box thing- and we were able to dance inside and outside the store! They put on a great show! After they were all danced out we hit a corn maze and had the kids home before midnight…
(the girls were still darling even with the scary makeup!!)
if you can believe it... this is colton- the make up guy gave him a latex piece to make the birthday boy EXTRA freaky!... and don't worry, Eric got in on the action:
Colton was stoked- he kept asking how we managed to keep this all from him, and you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face—he loved it! I was SO impressed what great sports all the kids were, and what great kids they were. I think that it’s good sometimes to do something that is really memorable! Something that you can look back and laugh! And maybe even shake your head. I am going to have to take a little break from throwing birthday parties for awhile!
I have a bunch of video footage, and photos and I need to edit it all into a fun Halloween video- so watch for that! Until then, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Colton… I love you my Sweet… Here’s to a wonderful year of being 14!!
So i am working on a video w/ the dancing... the transformation into zombies... they party!!... but here... meet the zombies!