'I Have Not One ... Not Two, But ... THREE Surprises!

A few interesting things happened over the past couple of weeks.

However, because I've been living these events, I haven't had much time to write about them :-)

Now, it's time to tell you about a few surprises I had for the boys for their birthdays.

Sooooo ... if you popped by for a quick read, come back later.

We're playing catch-up today!


A few weeks ago, Adam turned ten yrs old. Double digits, people!

It's not often I post close up shots of the boys, but he just looked so damn cute in this one I HAD to share that cuteness (as well as a few others) with the entire world.

He decided he wanted to have a party at the house this year.

A boy/girl dance party.

A-hem.

Oh yes, Mama was there to chaperon!

And I DID join 'em, for one song, until Adam gave me a 'look' that sent me back up to the kitchen again LOL

Around 9:30pm, the girls left, and boys stayed for a sleepover.

The night before the party, I put on my decorating hat and attempted to transfer the (w)rec(ked) room into a Disco Wonderland. Complete with strobe lights, and disco balls.

A little dancing ... sure ... more just running around being goofy with the music on ;-)

Next up, only a few weeks later, was Alec's birthday.

My baby, turned 14!

Hello, my name is Kim, and I am the mother of a full fledged teenager!

Now, along with birthdays, usually come presents.

My kids tend to want many things for their birthday.

I get them to tell me their 'really want', and then depending on the cost of that, they'll get one or two more.

One thing both boys had originally asked for as a birthday present, was a Rey Mysterio (wwe wrestler) mask.

Pic taken from HERE

Yes, I could have ordered these from the WWE website, but each one would have cost me $50, as well as $30+ for shipping to Canada.

Sorry boys, wasn't gonna happen.

What I did instead, was find some dude on Kijiji who was selling Jeff Hardy armbands (@ $7 compared to $15 each), told him I wanted a couple pair for my kids for their birthdays, and then figured I may as well ask him if he knew of anyone who had any masks.

Turned out he runs something called MainStream Wrestling Entertainment, which is currently touring across Canada, and would be coming to town in time for Alec's birthday.

He would have armbands, AND masks (for less than half the price on the website)!

WooHoo!

Unfortunately it would be too late for Adam's birthday, but I knew he wouldn't mind a belated present ;-)

So we made arrangements to meet.

That plan didn't pan out.

At first, I was disappointed, because I thought I might not get the items in time.

Now, looking back, I realize that if things had gone according to plan, the next set of events, and what turned out to be a HUGE surprise for the boys wouldn't have happened.

We made arrangements to meet later in the week.

I took a late lunch, went down to the pub where the show was taking place later that evening and found the Armband Dude.

Perfect. Half the mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, the guy who had the masks hadn't arrived yet.

Damn.

Then, it hit me, it was probably best if I had the boys with me to pick out the masks anyway.

I had a general idea of what they wanted, but hated the thought of getting home and seeing a look of disappointment on their faces if I had chosen something 'uncool' after all.

So, as I looked over to the guys assembling the wrestling ring, an idea began to form ...

The boys would freak if they came down and saw the ring set up, and maybe a wrestler or two!

I told Armband Dude that I'd be back after work, WITH my kids, and I'd let them pick out their own masks.

We wouldn't be staying for the show.

Kids can eat in pubs, but can't stay past a certain hour. 8 pm I think?

When Alec called later that afternoon, I told him to make sure he and his brother were ready to leave the house right away as soon as I got home, because we were going out for a surprise, then we'd grab some dinner afterwards.

Picked them up after work, and didn't tell them where we were going, or why.

Before we left, we sat in the car for a minute, and I said 'I have not one ... not two, but ... THREE surprises!'

And before they could begin with the 'is it a ...' I said 'close your eyes, put out your hands, and you'll get the first one.'

And they did.

As soon as the package hit their fingers, their eyes opened to find, and immediately put on the armbands :-)

Surprise #1 - Success!

Now, instead of telling you immediately about Surprise #2, I'm instead going to skip straight to #3, since it continues with this whole wrestling theme ;-)

So, with armbands in place, we left.

And it was a 20 min drive filled with 'is it a ...' or 'what about a ...' or 'can we x with it?' or 'is it a puppy?'

No, no, no, and NO!

When we finally got there, they still had no idea where we were or why.

But once we got inside, and they saw the wrestling ring, they knew whatever it was, it was going to be something GOOD!

I told them we were there to pick out the masks, and explained that no, we weren't allowed to stay for the show.

We found Armband Dude, and you know what? He was GREAT!

Treated them like little VIPs.

Grabbed one of the show promo posters, and had the wrestlers who were there sign it for them.

Introduced him to some of 'The Boys' who were hanging around, waiting for things to get started.

And then ...

And THEN ...

He gave Adam the ULTIMATE birthday present, by saying 'SURE!' when Adam asked ...

'Can we go in the ring?'

Oh yeah!

The boys, with one of the guys who is supposed to be one of the 'bad' guys.

You want to see a kid LIGHT UP?

No more encouragement required, they were in the zone.

We were there about half an hour or so, hangin' out

After I was finally able to coax them out, they picked out their masks and off we went for a birthday dinner.

But not before even Mama was offered a free ticket, if she wanted to come back later that night for the show ;-)

Mama appreciated, but declined.

And after dinner?

Oh YEAH!

It was ON BABY!

Surprise #3 ... SUCCESS!

OK, so let's backtrack a bit.

Back a couple of hours or so.

Back to when we were sitting in the car, right after the boys finished putting on their new armbands, and I said ...

'Now, this next one, is for Alec, for his birthday, from Frankie Hollywood at 101.3 The Bounce.

But we'll ALL be going to it! He gave us four weekend passes!'

Two mouths dropped.

As far as they were concerned, it didn't matter WHAT it was.

It was four weekend passes, from their favourite station and Mom thought it was 'surprise worthy'.

WooHoo!

Once again, eyes closed, hands out, big grins plastered on two expectant faces.

I dug the tickets out of my purse, put them in their hands and said, 'OK ... open'

Alec was the first to react.

'We're going? I didn't think you were going to get tickets! How did you get tickets?'

I gave him a smile and said, 'Thank Frankie Hollywood.

Adam was still looking at his ticket.

Trying to figure out the acronym of the upcoming event that obviously had his brother so excited.

Finally, he simply looked at me and asked, 'where are we going?'

And before I could say anything, Alec replied ...

... to be continued.

*******************************************

Sorry my friends, that's where we're going to stop for tonight.

This post has taken on a life of it's own, and the Surprise #2 event really deserves an entry all to itself.

Not only do you find out how we spent Alec's birthday weekend, but you'll also hear about how we became stranded, un-stranded, stranded again, rescued a couple of times, and ... the story behind 'Mama's New Ride!'

Oh yeah, you'll want to come back to hear all about THAT ONE!

And how during one breakdown, I had three boys waiting at the house for dinner, before heading out to the first weekend event, and I'm in the Pizza Hut parking lot, with a large meat lovers on my passenger seat.

And CAN'T. GO. ANYWHERE.

Yeah.

Welcome to my world, people. Welcome to my world lol.

K