Surprise Mom & Dad!!! ♥

My sisters and I decided to surprise our parents for their birthdays. My dad's birthday was June 17th and my mom's birthday was on June 26th.

My parents and my older sister live in NYC so my older sister told my parents that she and her husband wanted to take them out for a birthday dinner. The thing she left out was that my other 2 sisters, nephew, Sean and I were going to travel for the dinner and surprise them.

Sean couldn't make it because of his new work schedule, {lame} but seeing my hometown 2 weekends in a row AND surprising my parents was really exciting to me.

Also, my mom was celebrating her 60th birthday so that's a huge milestone in itself. If you are curious my dad turned 63.

My sisters and I arrived at my sister and husband's apartment early Saturday that way we could wrap presents and hang out. It isn't often that we are all in one place. There is always someone missing so it was nice for the 4 of us to be together and talk. It is so strange to see that we are all grown up because I can still remember so much from our childhood.

It is also nice to get together and talk in a way that no one understands because we get it and no one else does. :)


My brother in law {Brian} reading to my nephew. It was so cute to see how Zach was so into the book. Handy Manny is so exciting to little boys, haha.


I liked the flower in my hair. My older sister {Emma} let me wear it. Note to self, buy more accessories for hair.


The youngest sister {Maryanna}. Isn't she a cutie? :)


Any who, we were all getting ready at Emma's apartment and my parents called Emma to let her know that they had arrived at her apartment a little earlier. Talk about the craziness that occurred after that, haha.

We started freaking out. Why were they so early?! Oh no! We started grabbing our stuff out of Emma's living room because they would be suspicious to see suitcases and a play-pen at Emma's apartment. They have no kids, haha.

Emma told us to put everything in their room, to stay there and keep Zach quiet. Can I tell you how hard it is to keep a 1 1/2 year old quiet. Well, it is. Brian finally decided that this wasn't going to work so he went downstairs to meet my parents in an effort for them not to come upstairs.

The plan was that we were going to be at the restaurant first and when my parents arrived with my sister and BIL that would be the surprise. But things never pan out the way you plan. They turned out better! :)

After Emma and Brian left things were suppose to get easier. Emma told me that she would text me when they wanted us to leave the apartment to head to the restaurant. They were taking my parents to this park that has the water and stuff to buy us some time. I never got that text. Um, hello. I called but of course she was talking all sorts of strange things because she didn't want my parents to know who she was talking to. I finally text her and asked, when are we suppose to leave? She said, I told you as soon as we left. Um, what?! You left 20 minutes ago!!! We are still here. She was like, well you better get a move on it.

We started panicking because we thought we were going to ruin the surprise. My parents were going to arrive at the restaurant before us. We were in my little sister's {Priscilla} car asap. Of course, putting a baby in a car seat is not exactly the quickest feat if your name is Faith. I have NO idea how to work a car seat so my sister had to get out of the car to do it. I'm sorry P, haha.

We get into the car and my sister has no idea how to work her GPS. Her excuse, I never use it. Luckily, I figure out how to use hers and we are on our merry way. When you don't know where you are going, you don't trust anyone. Not even your GPS. After a few wrong turns, we made it to the area of the restaurant. We just needed to find parking. By this time, Emma and Brian can't stall anymore so we get a text that they just found parking and are heading to the restaurant.

Just great! We just found parking so we knew that if we didn't hide they were going to see us. Hahaha. It was hilarious. My sisters, Zach and I were running across the street because if we stayed on the side of the street we were, we were certain our parents were going to see us. We were hiding and ducking behind cars. Seriously, the most funniest thing. If anyone saw us they would have thought we were crazy. I wish someone took a picture, lol.

We see our parents, Emma and Brian walk into the restaurant and we just watched behind a car.

We give it a few minutes that way they would be seated when we walked in. When you walk into the restaurant there are all these windows so even walking into the restaurant we had to duck to ensure they didn't see us.

Well we made it and imagine my parents surprised faces when we walked in. I was so flustered heading to the restaurant so I didn't have my handy camera on hand, but forever I will remember their surprised faces. It was beautiful and I had this tugging on my heart that reminded me just how much I love my parents.

Lots of hugs, kisses, and more hugs later we sat down to eat!

We had the surprise dinner at a Cuban restaurant named Blend. Delicious food. OMG!




Priscilla and Maryanna


Priscilla and I


After we ate, Emma told the servers secretly to get dessert with a candle and of course sing Happy Birthday. The cutest thing happened when the serves came out singing. The whole restaurant joined in. Look at my parents expressions, taking it all in.







He thought it was the greatest thing to wear Brian's sunglasses :)



My sisters and I ♥


Group shot :)



Crazy Sister Love




When we returned back to Emma's apartment we caught Zach putting on Brian's sneakers.




As I get older, I find myself wanting to spend more time with my family. I want to spend hours on the phone with my sisters and want to spend a lot of time with my nephew. I want to travel often to visit my parents because they are such beautiful people and have done some amazing things in their lives. I couldn't have asked for better role models. It was such a great weekend and a reminder of why God blessed me with them. I can't take anymore days with them for granted.

It was a beautiful weekend but if there is one wish I could make that would have made the weekend even more perfect, I wish that the hubster would have been there.