Every once in a while I like to prove to Alexis that I really do trust her, and that's exactly why she was in on the surprise birthday shenanigans that came together over the weekend. The husband graduated from "grumpy man" to "grumpy old man" and the only way to celebrate that is while surrounded by friends who like you enough to spare you the confetti canons that your wife bought.
I will find a way to use the confetti canons, y'all. I haven't given up on that dream.
Anyway, Alexis knew about the surprise party two weeks before it was set to be held. I was pretty confident that she would be able to keep the secret, and I'm glad to say she was. She only came close to slipping once. That was while we were eating dinner and he was talking about how the neighbors (who were in on the surprise) were bugging him to do something for his birthday. I responded that it was fine if he did, and Alexis' head nearly exploded. She didn't say anything, but she most definitely turned to me and dramatically mouthed, "BUT, MOM, THE PARTY."
I explained to her later that sometimes trickery is involved in surprises, to which she replied, "Ohhhhhh! Now I get it!"
So the day to carry out the shenanigans arrived, and Alexis had kept her trap shut. I was really very impressed, especially because she had to sit at a restaurant table and eat dinner without admitting that she knew that people were sneaking into our house at that very moment. Can you imagine being 8-years old and knowing that and yet having to sit there and ask for more chips and salsa? The kid did good, is what I'm saying.
But I KNEW there was no way she could last another second.
As luck would have it, the husband and I had driven separately to the restaurant, so I managed to convince Alexis that she should ride home with me. She closed her door, started to put on her seatbelt, and LOST IT.
"MOM! I'M SO EXCITED! HE DOESN'T KNOW! I HAVE SO MANY WORDS I WANT TO SAY! I CAN'T TAKE IT! ARE THEY THERE YET? WHO IS THERE? HE DOESN'T KNOW! I'M SO EXCITED THAT I'M SHAKING, MOM!" The words cascaded out of her mouth, one after another, falling from her face like a chain of dominos.
She spoke in rapid fire CAPS LOCK and exclamation points all the way home. I'm not sure which one of us felt like the drive was longer, but I know for a fact someone picked up our house and moved it 20 miles further away.
Even with the extra distance, we somehow beat the husband to the house. Our friends were tucked safely inside with the lights out, waiting to scream surprise, while Alexis stood in our driveway VIBRATING WITH EXCITEMENT OMG. She couldn't gather her thoughts enough to go inside, nor could she stand there without running laps in her head because OMG VIBRATING WITH EXCITEMENT.
I have never needed duct tape as much as I did at that moment.
Somehow, someway, I had predicted a crazy moment just like that one, so I happened to have balloons in my car. I busied Alexis with getting them out of the car and told her to stand in the driveway and scream "SURPRISE!" while she handed the husband his balloons.
It worked.
That was enough for her to get the absolute need to spill the beans out of her system.
But barely.
Let's just say it's a really good thing he was completely clueless and made it into the house quickly. The poor kid wouldn't have survived another 0.000000001 seconds.