What a surprise!

My kids bowled me over with a surprise birthday party Saturday night. I'll spare you the details of how they pulled it off, much of which would only make sense if you knew the key players and how they interact. The stinkers. Those dear, sweet lovable stinkers.

 

When you aren't expecting something, you don't see suspicious activity, especially when there is a logical explanation accompanying that activity if you do happen to notice it. How can I read so many mysteries and watch so much investigative TV and have my head in the clouds or in the sand?

I don't have photos of people to share (I'm usually the photographer) and wouldn't have permission to share their faces here anyway. I was giving hubby grief (playfully) as we walked up our older son's driveway. They had a beautiful mum on their porch and we did not. I hadn't been able to coerce hubby to shop for a mum that afternoon. When my son told me to come into the back yard, that he wanted to show me something, I thought he had a mum for me.

I know I stopped. I know I cried. I don't know what I said that moment of for the rest of the evening. I made my way around the yard hugging everyone. We had just come from dinner with our younger son so I wasn't in a hurry to go downstairs where there was food. An hour might have passed before I got down there and found more people!

My once a month dinner buddies were there. Most of my knitting group was able to make it. Most of our neighbors were there. My dear friend since kindergarten was there. Our good friends from South Carolina were there (talk about a long drive to a birthday party!). People with mobility issues braved the damp night air and climbing basement stairs to celebrate my birthday.

I'm getting teary eyed again.

I'm not sure how my sons reached some of these people as some of my friends aren't really really family friends, even though they know about my family and my family knows about them. My younger son reached the knitters through my sister-in-law who is part of that group. Speaking of my sis-in-law, her family and mine have been together three weekends in a row now celebrating birthdays. This weekend is going to be boring without one!

What I want to tell you about today is a woman and her husband who drove 35 miles to be there among people they didn't know. Bobbi had met hubby a few times, long enough to say hello, and I think just one of my sons, also briefly. Her husband met me for the same period of time when I've been to her home.

Bobbi and I are internet buddies. We are part of a group of 12 women on a private message board that have been good friends for years. We all used to post at a huge forum on the HGTV site that shut down years ago. We didn't want to lose contact with each other so we formed our own board. I've met all but one lady, but I did meet her son when he was in the Detroit area twice on business.

I am as close to these women as I am to my kindergarten buddy, my South Carolina friend, my knitting sister-in-law and her daughters, and my once a month dinner companions who are 35+ year friendships. They heard me (or read) saying I want a mum, I need a mum, I'm gonna get a mum. They got me a mum, and "mooned" me:

The plant was in my son's backyard and was a pleasant surprise. The whole group mooning me was a surprise waiting for me in my flower bed at home. The plates were covered in plastic because rain was forecast but thankfully didn't happen.

There were 11 plates moons in all, each one with the board nickname of a very special lady.

 

No one group of friends is more cherished than another. It would be like picking a favorite child...impossible. I have been blessed with wonderful friends since the age of five. A number of the party guests were contemporaries of my kids and I count them as friends too. I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but I am grateful.

 

And speaking of luck, I have a slew of scratch-off lottery tickets to attack before I begin writing thank you notes.

More on friendships and a look at my loot tomorrow!