Whoa Mom - Stop the Car!

Wait let me back up and start from the beginning...

It all started with a surprise invitation sent out. Caitlin thought she was taking this picture for a primary lesson I had to teach 

[I can be sneaky}

But.. let me tell you - this was hours and hours in the making. I envisioned the whole thing from start to finish - and I will say this is one grateful little girl, but she will have no true appreciation for this until she becomes a mom herself.

Un-beknowing to my daughter, I was staying up late every night {nothing new there} and planning this thing out, from the clues to the party favors and everything in between. We had rented a limo to come and pick the girls up and they would have three hours to drive around. Well, I wanted them to be able to have fun along the way so I planned a huge scavenger hunt with tasks they would have to complete before they could receive their next clue as to where they were going.

So, I surprised Caitlin by picking her up after school and taking her to Old navy so that we could stall the time away while her friends were meeting back at our house to get into the limo. I can honestly say that all of the planning and organizing of this was worth it as we were driving home and Caitlin could see a limo in the distance ahead of us. She said, "Oh cool. Look mom - somebody got a limo." Me, being eternally cool and collected, said, "Oh wow - someone must be going to a party or a dance."

Then as we got closer to the limo, Caitlin noticed the driver was standing in the rode holding a sign and the sign had her name on it! Hence the scream, "Whoa Mom - stop the car! That sign says my name on it!" As I was stopping, I said, "That is weird - what in the world is going on?"

As Caitlin hopped out of the car, and ran to the limo, Bart popped up from hiding behind the car and started filming. I think at that point Caitlin was in such shock and she thought that herself and her parents were going for a ride. {Which she would have been fine with!} Can you imagine her excitement when she opened the door and saw all of her friends inside screaming "Happy Birthday!"

It was the BEST!

At that point, I handed the girls their first clue and they were off. They first went to the lake and had to wear embarrassing glasses as they ran a quarter mile to look for a clue hidden under a HUGE rock!

{Yours truly carried that fifty pound 

bad boy there earlier that day!}

Of course we followed behind the limo so that we could document the entire thing!

{I got a couple teenage eye rolls at doing that!}

For their next stop, they had to go to 7/11 and buy slurpees. They also had to wear a Hawaiian lei and do a hula dance for the cashier before they would be given the next clue! 

Some girls really got into it!

After 7/11, they headed to a darling  little bakery shop that sells homemade cupcakes.

I had each one of the girls pick out their own cupcake and before they could receive their next clue, they had to tell three jokes to the bakery owner.

After the cupcake store, they headed back to the limo to go over to the pet store. I had talked to one of the employees who does inventory on the aquariums, if he knew the exact number of fish in the big tank so that the girls would have to guess how many.

They were funny watching as they tried to keep track of all the fast moving fish!

Once they guessed the right number they received their clue and headed over to Nickel City. I had pre-bought a ton of nickels and the girls had to play until the nickels were gone and they had gained at least 50 tickets. once they had the tickets turned in, they would get their final clue.

The very last clue sent them to pick up pizzas - this is where we signed off as they had about 45 minutes to just drive around in the limo, eat pizza and pretend they were famous!

I lived vicariously through these cute girls 

{for just a brief moment} and I am so thankful for Caitlin and her good choice of friends! 

It was really fun to not only pull this off, 

but to really see them excited about being together and celebrating Caitlin's big day!!

One final Happy Birthday!

Post script: Don't be expecting anything 

quite like this next year! Love ya!