How Does One Celebrate A Birthday?

By having a surprise party with everyone 'stranded' on a tropical island!

This has been my planning for the last month, and I have spent my entire Friday (which I have had scheduled off for an entire month, but Cary thought I just did this today) running around, cleaning the apartment and getting the decorations. All with eating lunch with my hubby!

The idea comes from 'if you were stranded on an island and had only one movie/book/cd/game...for the entire time you are there, what would it be?' Well, the party plans haven't developed that much, so it will consist of a bunch of stranded people sitting around a table in a comfortable apartment playing games and just enjoying each other's company!

I spoke with my sister-in-law on the phone just a little earlier, and our niece is ready to act stranded!!! And even Chester will become a 'native'!

The decorations are simple, with green helium balloons and gold ribbon that are there for 'trees', an inflatable monkey, and starfish tossing game. My favorite 'decoration'? the coconut glasses mom and I found at Party City!!!

The food tonight consists of pretzel dogs (if they turn out), blue punch (non-alcoholic of course!)chips/dips, and banana splits!

Well, it is 8 minutes until Cary leaves work and drives to school for his final exam in Ethics. The 'shipwrecked' (also known as family members--I feel like Benjamin in LOST!) will be arriving around 5:30 or so, and get ready to surprise him. The hardest part of this entire planning process is not telling Cary everything, like having off today, but I hope he understands once this is over. I also hope he enjoys this!!!