Maggie's Surprise Party: Alternately titled "The Day I Learned My Daughter Hates Surprises"

Maggie turned 11 last week. She was wanting a dog. A little dog. And we were just crazy enough to be considering letting her get one. That was until we kept my mom's dog for a couple of nights. Little dogs are stubborn. We forgot just how much. That's all it took to snap her back to reality. No dog.

For now at least.

So a week later and the girl had no gift.



Enter my brilliant idea

A SURPRISE pool party.

It was the perfect set up.

Her birthday was long gone.

She would not suspect a thing.



Oh the lying I did to pull this off.

I pray the Lord can forgive me.

I told her the party was for her friend who had to have her party in June instead of July due to her family being out of town on her birthday.

Poor thing..she even made a card for her.

I felt awful and I made a discovery about myself in the process.

I am a bad liar.

No seriously.

Every time I told her a fib I walked away thinking "she's on to me."

Poker face. Lady Gaga has one. I do not.



I managed to have everyone ready and waiting for her arrival.

She walked through the door and was greeted by 45 people yelling "Surprise Maggie!!!"

{Let me just interject here and tell you what I expected would happen.

Hands on cheeks. Mouth open. Jaw dropped. Mile wide grin. Oh. My. Gosh.

Yeah that's pretty much how I had it played out in my head that it would go.}



Not so much how it went down.

She managed to conjure up a smile, {cause I've raised her to be polite ya know} turn to me and whisper through the fake smile (and I do believe gritted teeth), "Why did you do this mom?!"

Fail.

Add this to the long and ever growing list of things I've managed to get all wrong as a mom.

Faced with the obvious failure of my surprise of a lifetime, I just laughed. Weird I know but trust me folks..the moment was begging for it.

I'm such an extrovert that sometimes I forget that God made my children each unique in their own way.

And sometimes nothing like me.

This is the hard part of parenting for me these days. How to let go of my own expectations and desires for them and see them as the individuals God has planned for them to be.

A surprise party? YES PLEASE! BRING. IT.

That's me though...not her.

She's so much more reserved. Quiet. And He made her just that way for His purpose in her life.

And I am learning.

Even still



Thankfully though she has just enough of her momma's spunk {and I do believe a little of that poker face I am lacking} to shake it off fast, join in on the laughter, and get her partay on.

We had such a blast with our sweet friends and family.

Pool.Friends.Music.Pizza.Cupcakes.

Perfect.

She told me later that night that even though she didn't care for the surprise part...it was a great surprise.

She felt special that everyone had gone to so much trouble just for her and that was my sole desire. Mission accomplished.

Note to self: never ever again throw your daughter a surprise anything.



The next day I took her on a little shopping trip.

You know just to make sure there were no hard feelings.



She looked pretty happy to me.



"My every mortal breath, is Grace and nothing less"