Happy 18th birthday, Ted E. – Part 3

[Read Part 2 here.]

We wrapped Ted in the closet at 6:20. The guests planned to arrive at 6:45, but we wanted to make sure to get him in. And a good thing too. The first guests arrived just minutes later.

I got nervous. Oh well, we could handle this. Will stayed inside and started cooking the hot dogs and everything – I stayed outside to direct traffic to the school parking lot down the street: we wouldn’t want the cars parked outside giving away the surprise for Ted, right?

At 7:00, we gathered in the foyer. My dad was scheduled to arrive at 7:07.

we ran a practice round of everyone saying, “Surprise!” Fun times.

My dad entered at 7:07 and 30 something seconds. “Hey, has anyone seen Ted?” he said as he entered.

Nothing. Quietness. Ted, hidden in the closet, let the moment sink in.

Then… with karate chop action, birthday boy burst from the closet. “Surprise!” Music blasted for about a minute. Ted walked around and gave out some high fives. Guests complained that he’d set them up.

First mission accomplished. Now to keep the party rockin’.

We started with the Mac-N-Cheese eating contest. One plate of noodles, no hands, and a table of contestants. Ricky started out clearly in the lead, but Sean come from behind as the victor in the end. The contestants generally agreed that Mac-N-Cheese had lost its luster after that. And somehow one plate had seemed huger than ever before.

Next contest… the Gummy Bear toss, in which a partner tries to throw a Gummy Bear into the other partner’s mouth. Three times. Each. Sean and Ted rocked that contest.

Finally, toward the end of the party, we tried out Team Spoons, a game Ted and I (and Will?) invented a couple hours before the party. Vernell’s team dominated that one, though Sean’s team came in second (that Sean gets around).

Somewhere in there, we ate, opened gifts, Foos balled, ping ponged, completed a whole game of Imaginiff, speed scrabbled, played various games of poker, and enjoyed other highly entertaining activities.

Around – what? – 11:30 or 12:00, some of us moseyed outside. A bunch of us (and by “us” I mean “them”) played Wall Ball, while the rest of us (here I’m included) sat on the Hippie Stopper (or whatever Matthew called it… I know the word “hippie” was in there somewhere).

Apart from the coldness and the goofy conversations, that turned out to be a heartwarming hour or so. I hadn’t seen or hung out with many of these friends in a long time.

Thank you (big time), everyone who attended. Overall, I’d say the surprise party scored a success.

What did you think?

Happy 18th birthday, Ted E. …even though the party’s over, you’ve still got an amazing story to tell.