Greg's 40th Birthday

Greg hit the big 4-0 this week!  His last surprise party was 10 years ago (You guessed it!  When he turned 30!), so I figured he was about due.  I decided to keep it small, just a few close friends and relatives.  Basketball is his favorite activity after programming, and I'm not sure how it would work to have everyone program together, so basketball was the next best thing.  I rented a gym at an athletic facility for 1 1/2 hours.  Everyone was to meet outside our door at 7 p.m.  We would arrive at the gym by 7:30, play until 9, and come back home for dessert.  He's crazy about fruit, so I asked everyone to bring a fruit dessert.

Miraculously, Greg didn't find out.  And it was truly miraculous.  My brother got the day wrong and called a month early asking where everyone was.  Thankfully Greg and Kylen were out, but he decided to stop by anyway since he and his wife and baby had driven an hour to get here.  His wife even made a beautiful fruit bouquet they left with us.  Later when Greg and Kylen got home, I told them my brother's wife "got fancy with the fruit."  ;)

Not long after the above incident, Greg told me he didn't want a big party and asked if we could invite the McD's over.  That worked out, because they were on the guest list anyway.  Mr. McD loves to grill, and Greg had been thinking it would be super cool to have him hang out while grilling a bunch of meat.  They arrived at 3, and the men went to pick up salmon, sea bass, and beef wellington.  Greg had already purchased rib eye.  The wellington gets baked, so that left 3 different meats to grill.  I was planning to sit down at 5.  We sat down at 6:30.  If you do the math, you realize that only left a half hour for us to eat before our surprise guests arrived, and you can only imagine how nervous I was the hour and a half leading up to that moment.  Praise God, when the doorbell rang, we were all nearly finished.  I looked at Greg's plate, and he had just 3 bites of rib eye left.  Phew!

We ended up with 10 players, a few observers, and a few late arrivals who didn't play.  It was kids versus adults.  Some of the adults definitely took it easy on the kids, but I think everyone had fun and worked up a good sweat.  They played almost nonstop.

It was after 9:30 when we got back.  There were two blueberry desserts that were delicious.  My favorite was fresh blueberry fritters from a local doughnut shop, but the homemade blueberry cream pie was also excellent.  We had apple Danishes, lemon meringue, and of course a lovely fruit bouquet.

Soon it was time for gifts and cards, and before we knew it, it was getting pretty late on a school night.  Greg said he would rate the party 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, so I guess it was a success!!

Greg serving himself sea bass!

Who's at the door?

Playing Ball

The oldest guarded the youngest.  Lol!

My aunt meeting my brother's daughter for the first time.

Chaos after a photo.

Our friend Eric being his silly self.

They have a really neat mural on the wall at the athletic facility.  Greg and I are both Gonzaga alumni.

Blueberry fritters!  Yum!

Greg gesturing as we sing happy birthday.

Eating dessert.

My funny uncle and his daughter.  I gave out the mini basketballs as favors.

Carrie and Eric - so cute!

I found a perfect card for Greg.  The front said "Bleep Boop Bleep" with a picture of R2-D2.  Inside said, "You're the droid I'm looking for."  Isn't that sweet?!

We thought it was odd when the McD's gave Greg hot cocoa and marshmallows . . .

It made more sense when he opened a huge basketball mug from them!  And it was filled with cute little candy basketballs.  He also got a couple of Panda Express gift cards (my suggestion as a gift idea, since he loves eating there), an expansion pack for Apples to Apples, and a Coke hand towel (something he requested for when he's drying off Cokes from the cooler).

I already have a few ideas for his 50th!  Stay tuned . . . that's only 10 years away!