How to Plan a Surprise Party

Take 3 plotting daughters. Fill them full of half-truths, denials and excuses. Send one to town to "collect items in storage." Send another to "spend time with family." Have the other "unable to come to town due to work obligations."


Get the best family-friend-cake-maker to duplicate your parents' wedding cake, using only blurry photos from 1969 as a guide.

Purchase a one-of-a-kind gift: a personalized family "tree."

Be sure to invite everyone your parents know - friends, colleagues, church members, family...and anyone who is listed in the address book you stole out of your mom's purse. Design an invitation, mail it and swear EVERYONE to secrecy.

Then, the day of the party, when nothing whatsoever is expected, watch it all fall apart.

• Your mom volunteers you to make 3 apple pies and several quarts of potato salad.
• Get asked to run errands galore.
• Start running out of excuses to "go on errands."
• Have the local paper call your parents to confirm their anniversary listing - that you secretly placed.
• Forget to bring a digital projector, necessitating the theft of your mom's cell phone to call a university employee to check one out.

Somehow, some way, pull it off.

No one figures it out. Your parents think they know the secret - dinner out and a listing in the newspaper. They have no idea that you've invited the world to celebrate with them.

Lie one more time to get them to the church - the church they married in on June 1, 1969. Then for the next two hours, enjoy watching your parents having a great time.

The party was a wonderful success. More than once, Mom and Dad mentioned afterwards: We never thought we'd see those friends again in this life. A few of those in attendance had been at their wedding all those years ago!

Wave after wave of folks, for far longer than the party's scheduled time. But we didn't care.

It was worth it. After all, it's a pretty big deal to celebrate a 40th anniversary.