Recently my brother, Tom and my sister, Joanne and I gave a surprise joint birthday party for my parents. Tom lives in Southern California, Joanne in Scottsdale though travels non stop for work and I in NYC. We managed to bridge the distance gap to plan this party. Thank goodness for the internet, free conference call.com, and Skype. The invites were sent via Evite.
The festive occasion was held at the UHaul/Frank Lloyd Wright House. I can’t begin to describe how beautiful the house is. Frank Lloyd Wright thought of everything and was so eco-minded in his design and materials.
Joanne supplied the contacts for the cake, catering, chair, plate and silverware rental, flowers. Of course she’s done this many times before. We divided and conquered—Tom and Joanne did all of the ordering. Tom kept us all organized with by using an excel chart to track our progress and tasks. Project management does run in this family.
Catering was done by Sharko’s. We selected the Italian buffet. The food was good but the craters forgot a couple of items, mainly the meatballs for the pasta. The flowers were nice but I could sense Tom’s disappointment because he ordered the flowers and was expecting something different. The cake arrived but it was suppose to have fresh flowers and all cream filling no fruit. The cake was designed by Karsh’s. Though it still looked beautiful it wasn’t really was we asked for.
Despite these pitfalls with long distance it was a surprise of all surprises because my parent’s friends really kept it a secret. Not a word was whispered or leaked that there was a surprise party for them. My mother burst into tears my father was touched. Bigger picture the occasion was awesome and worth doing.