Surprise!!!

Fifty years ago, on September 8, Joseph Vincent LaBate was born to Vincent and Anne LaBate in Harrison, New York. This week, we celebrated his birth and amazing life that God has given him thus far. On Monday night, we unwrapped gifts and had his birthday dinner. On his actual birth date (Tuesday) I brought lunch (George's Gyros) to him at work. Our family celebration was kept pretty low key and I could tell that dad was just alittle disappointed; after all, he is still a child at heart and he wanted more hoopla over his 50th! But, unbeknownst to him we did have alittle party planned for him...

We invited about 6 other couples to our house for a surprise party on Friday at 6:30 pm. The only problem was keeping dad at work until then...so we come up with a plan. We decided that we would strand him at work with no car until Brooke could pick him up when she got off after 6:00, and then she would drive slow and stall for time to get him at the house after 6:30. So that is exactly what we did, only we had a small problem...Dad started persistently calling and wanting picked up at approximately 4:30. I ignored the first two calls to my cell phone, but then I knew I finally had to answer. I told him that I was unable to pick him up because I was on my way out the door to work out, but that I would leave a note for mom (who he thought was at work, but really was at the house getting ready for his party) to pick him up when she got home. Mom finally called him at 5:15 and told him that she had ran to the store after work and couldn't he just wait until alittle after 6 for Brooke to get him??? Well, Dad was not too happy at all, he did wait but not so very patiently. Brooke took her time in picking him up and when she got him, he peevishly said, "This family needs to learn how to communicate!" If he only knew how much we were communicating to get this thing worked out...:)

Brooke did her job well with the stalling and with taking the brunt of his reprimanding and got him to the house at about 6:35. All the guests greeted the cantankerous birthday boy with a hearty, "Surprise!" Dad was really truly surprise and we were so very lucky that we had a good excuse for keeping him at work 2 hours later than he wanted to be!

SURPRISE!!!

Make a wish!

Unwrapping gifts

Happy Birthday, Daddy, we love you!