Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

We spoke of how much we wanted it.  (He more than I.)
"Well? It'd be a lot of work...." "I know!!! But it'd be really nice to have...."
Ya.  We talked about. But no plans were made.

I decided to just go ahead and do it!!!   It would be a surprise.
(I'm giddy... excited to surprise him.).

After school I let my 7 and 5 year old in on the secret.
"Shhhhh.  Make sure you keep quiet.  Don't say anything about it, okay?!"
"OK MOMMY!!!  WE WON'T SAY A THING!!!!"
We worked hard on our special surprise; I more than they.
It was sweeter to have helping hands in my way so that it could be "from them", "for him".

He was going to be late getting home.
We hid every-single-possible-ounce of evidence as to what his surprise might be.

The girls were instructed "We can't show him until AFTER dinner.  Right? Don't say anything til' after OK?"
"OK MOMMY!!  WE WON'T SAY A THING!!!!!!"

To make it even sneakier, each girl colored a picture for their Daddy, so that when he came home we could announce "We have a surprise!  FOR YOU!!!" and then gift him with their uniquely creative art.

"SHHhhhhh.  Zoe, quit talking about what his surprise is.  When he comes home, we're going to give him his pictures, but DON'T FORGET we aren't going to tell him what his surprise is until after dinner."

"OK MOMMY!!!  I WON'T SAY A THING!!!  I promise.  I won't tell him.  Ok?!  Don't WORRY."

He was later than we thought- so we started eating before he came home.
It was very late for little girls that needed to be snuggled in bed an hour after.
Secret smiles were passed back and forth; fingers to lips when we saw the truck pulling into our drive way.  "Shhhhh.  Don't tell....."

Squeals and excitement when he opened the door,
"DADD-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kyla is a fantastic secret keeper.  She loves surprises.  She had her picture ready to hand over, and a secret smile pursed onto her oh-so-precious lips.

And Zoe.  She had already lost her picture.
She was the first to greet him at the door.......
"WE-HAVE-A-SURPRISE-FOR-YOU-AND-IT'S-CAKE, DADDY!! WE-MADE-IT-FORYOU."

(Sigh.)

She was too bouncy and smiley and excited and overjoyed for us to convince him otherwise.
We tried.
Kyla had drawn him a beautiful picture of cake.
"Oh. Ya. See!  Look.  Kyla colored you a picture of cake...."

His grin made it apparent that he wasn't buying it.

But it was, indeed, a special home-made cake.  For him (ahem... and them, the girls).
And we made it together for him.
And we knew exactly what his very favorite cake was.
Chocolate. With chocolate. And a lot more chocolate.

Zoe cut open the mix.
Kyla cracked the eggs.
Zoe measured the water.
Kyla retold yesterdays joke as she was whisking the eggs and oil and water together:
"What does a chef do when he's angry?"  "He beats the eggs and WHIPS the cream."
I laughed again.  She's so witty.

I made the icing.
No recipe, and a lot of "Dear Jesus please make this the yummiest icing we've ever tasted."

The girls licked the spoons and confirmed that God hears us when we pray; big or small.

And it was sweet.  The time we spent together....  The surprise that we made just for him....

Oh!!!  The Cake, too.  It was sweet. Yummy.  And Delicious.