The Surprise Party of the Century

Yesterday was a big day for my younger brother, Antoine, and a tiring one for me! I, being the best sister that I am, threw him a surprise graduation party, with the help of his best friend, Lauren. Now my brother isn't one to like to make a big production of things, but I being the person that I am, LOVE it.

A few months ago, my brother graduated high school, and officially decided to go to Xavier University. We toured the campus, (which was beautiful) and he decided, there was going to be his home for the next four years. I was supremely excited for him to go, but kind of sad to think to think that my baby brother was finally an adult and ready to leave the nest.

After he was done with school, My mother and I started pestering him about his grad party, but he kept telling us he didn't want one. He would get mad when we told him we would throw him one, so my mom and I decided to stop annoying him.

However, about two weeks ago, his friend, Lauren, messaged me on Facebook, and told me that she wanted to have one for him because, "he deserves it." I told her that it was a splendid idea, and went over her house the very next day to start planning.

Since it is the end of the summer, we only had a limited amount of time to set the date in order to get all of his friends to show up. We gave ourselves 10 days to plan, call, and craft. We sent Facebook messages, texts, and calls. We pestered anyone and everyone relentlessly.

We went to the dollar store, and crafted until obscene hours of the night. We had to reserve an area at the park, and make sure everyone cleared out of that area on the day of the grad party (which wasn't very easy). Let's just say, for the past week, I had gotten NO sleep whatsoever, what with trying to balance work and planning.

When the day finally came, I went over to his friend's house, put the finishing touches on his party and headed out to the state park. We had an hour and a half to decorate and get everything in order. His friends arrived a half an hour early, and my mother had arrived just in time with the food (she cooked).

Now all we needed was Antoine to get there. Previously that week, I had to think of some way to get him to the park without making him suspicious. How, you ask? Well, I told him that I'd never been to the state park and really wanted to go, and then bribed him with Barnes and Noble after we got done. He at first said yes, but I had a bumpy week that week, and the idiot kept trying to change plans. First, he said he had to work out; then the water got contaminated so he didn't think the state park would be such a great idea; then he wanted to make other plans; the possibilities of disaster were endless. But I overcame every obstacle he put in my way and made sure his booty got there. I had Lauren go and pick him up, and told him to make sure she drives since she had the pass to get into the park for free.

Finally, we saw him pull up, and I held a poster saying "Welcome to your Surprise Party!" and he came out of the car with a huge grin and disbelieving eyes. I went up to him and said "gotcha" and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a big hug.

He was ecstatic, because even though he kept saying he really didn't want one, he was very appreciative that he got one. He had a pretty decent turn out too--what with the 7-day notice we gave everyone! After we saw what a huge success the party was, Lauren and I both took a seat at the same time and gave a big sigh calling an end to our festivity planning and finally enjoying the party.