The only part of the cat left in the bag is the tail ....

For those of you who lived through this experience, I apologize for the repeat - but frankly I just can't keep it all to myself...

My wonderful husband recently celebrated a "relatively" milestone birthday so in an effort to be the loving wife I decided to get him a super special birthday cake. He's currently working on getting his pilots license and also wants to scratch build an airplane - yeah I was wondering about raiding those boy scout can collections for aluminum too - but I digress. I've got a really incredible source for custom cakes ... like Ace of Cakes - cakes. So I ordered a cake in the shape of the plane he wants to build - sent them the website with photos, really got things rolling.

In a moment of Mommy Insanity I decided that it would be prudent to include the kids in picking up and "hiding" the cake at a friends house. Bad idea when they are less than 1/2 and 1/4 a dozen years, respectively.

So one evening we (me and the kids) stealthily exit the house with the pretense of running to the bank. Well, this will take longer than a bank trip so I text dear husband "taking the kids to the park" - response text "which park" - shoot - he's thinking of taking a motorcycle ride and meeting us - what to do - just don't respond seems reasonable at the time.

We make the long trip to the pick up the cake - it's more than I could ever imagine - lots of fuss from me and the store owner about " it's a special surprise for Daddy - we can't tell Daddy - forget you saw the cake ...." and we make the long ride home - stopping first at our friends house at a way-to-late-hour-for-anyone-with-kids - to hide the cake in her fridge - Thank You AGAIN!!!

Upon exiting our friends driveway - literally 0.035 minutes from our home, my sweet husband calls "Where ARE you?" Not in a yelling mad way - in a what are you up to and oh yeah are you all still alive way. I am the fast thinking Engineer mind at work woman and say - ok fine, I actually took the kids to get your birthday present (not really a lie) and it took way longer than I thought and I'm so bad at this ... he and I are both laughing I finish by saying I'm pulling in the driveway now and need help transporting sleeping kids. He says, ok I'll wait until you hide my HUGE present call up when you need me * great so now I have to FAKE hiding a big present that I didn't get him. * Ok can do, well shoot once you start the downward spiral of "just a little lie - sin" it really starts swirling. Note to self - you're terrible at lying and sin is really bad. We make it through a relatively quiet evening and following day until dinner...

So we’re at dinner and I could have killed (OK not really) husband – he’s (intentionally or not) making comments and asking questions about his birthday. I explicitly tell him to stop – so the later punch he receives is well deserved. OK another sin - shouldn't punch husband - so much for the christian part of this blog ;-)

Our older son starts reviewing what his day on Friday will be like for us – I’ll go to school, do Standardized Achievement Tests, blah blah blah – ending with and then we go to my friends house for a party.

Hubs: Oh a party – but how are we going to celebrate my birthday without a cake?

Older son: Oh don’t worry the cake’s already at the Family Name’s house (gets that look as soon as he says it and quickly looks at me with the “did I do something wrong” look)

Quickly followed by younger son who just has to add his two cents ….

Younger Son: Yeah the airplane cake. (pride just radiating)

At which point I wasn’t mad at the boys but at Hubby and told him so and did he know how much work that had been that he just ruined and why couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut and let the surprise happen – and then I punched him - I still feel bad about that - Sorry Sweetie. God quickly intervened and told me in my heart that it wasn't that big of a deal and that some day I'd be laughing about it so I might as well laugh now.

Besides Hubby still didn’t know how cool it was until the REAL surprise ...

and he knows that he’s never ever going to get another surprise in his life. Later he told me he probably subconsciously doesn't like surprises - ya think? At least now I know.