The best collusions are those involving.......

The best collusions are those involving _________. There are many possible answers to the fill in the blank, but my favorite collusions are those involving birthdays. You know the kind - secret e-mails with co-conspirators, whispered conversations with the birthday girl in the next room, a wink of an eye when her back is turned…Finally, it all came together as planned, and yesterday we secretly convened for Jamie’s 30th birthday party/picnic at yellow park.

Jamie started putting the pieces together about a week ago. Apparently, I had told her that I was notorious for giving surprise parties. What?! How foolish of me to spontaneously say such a thing! In addition, she said that too many people were inquiring about her weekend plans, another clue that something was in the works.

Her husband arranged for them to go on a family outing to the park. As they were walking, they were seen by some of the co-conspirators in a car heading to the party. Her husband tried to divert her attention. At that point, her suspicions were confirmed. As they approached, we all yelled “surprise”, and an embarrassed Jamie began to blush. She had told us previously that she didn’t like “adult” birthday parties, which had me a little worried, but her husband reassured me that it would be okay.

I hope she enjoyed herself...we all did!! The setting was perfect, familiar to all of us who have used yellow park as a center point of our playdates. This time, I covered the normally bare picnic tables with beautiful white linen table clothes, and had picked a bouquet of hydrangeas as a centerpiece. However, with the breeze, the blue glass vase toppled over shattering into a million pieces. I am hoping that this is a sign of good luck!

Everyone brought delicious things to eat: fruit salad, cucumber sandwiches, pasta salad, pina coladas… I baked the cake...As Jamie has a love affair with pineapples, I chose a Pineapple/Carrot/Coconut cake. E-mail me should you want the recipe.......I may post something later about baking this cake. It was quite an event!

As a gift, we chipped in for a gift certificate to the local tattoo parlor. Jamie and I have shared tattoo stories, and she told me that she wants to get more. So we thought that since she is moving next month (sob!), that giving her a tattoo from Saugerties would be a nice way to remember all of the people she has touched the past year. So I guess in some ways, this birthday party was also a way to communicate to her how much she has been loved by so many of us this year! She will be missed, but we wish her the best!!! !