Monday, August 22, 2011

Skype-rise Birthday Party

Well...we took having a Surprise Birthday Party to a whole new technological level this weekend. We Skyped the guest of honor! Let's start from the beginning...

Kevin came up with the idea to Skype my sister (who lives in Alaska) for her birthday. She's been far away family for a long time and her husband is away training with the Army in preparation for deployment. He thought it would be a great idea to get a small group of her favorite people together for a cookout and then Skype with my sister while it was going on. I thought it could go two ways....
  1. She would LOVE it and totally appreciate the gesture and enjoy catching up with everyone.
  2. She would get upset because she wasn't actually there with us and end the Skype session. 
Well OBVIOUSLY it went the way of number 1....

Kevin and I planned to have a cookout and hope that the random storms we've been having lately would hold out (and they did!). Everyone brought a yummy treat with them to share. Kevin and I tossed BBQ chicken legs, mesquite pork chops, and beef/turkey burgers on the grill. For side dishes we had bbq baked beans, mac n cheese, frosted flake cheesy potato goodness (don't for the life of me know the name of it) and meatballs in the crock pot. I also steamed shrimp and we had a 7-layer taco dip. For dessert I baked two round cakes. AND we can't forget the awesome homemade black cherry wine! All the food was YUMMY.

My father showed up with his laptop that he uses to Skype with Vicki and had set a "date" for them to have their weekly Skype session. When he logged on he stood on one side of our deck and the rest of the party sat at the picnic table on the other side. She noticed very quickly that my father was outside and then he turned the laptop around and we sang "Happy Birthday". It was QUITE the surprise!

Afterward we passed the laptop around and each person got to say their own Happy Birthday message to her and have their time talking with her. About an hour into the Skype session she had to go. It was the quickest birthday party ever! Once the laptop was put away, we went back to over indulging on all the food everyone had prepared. As the sun slowly set our guests said goodbye and the party fizzled down to a small number.

I blogged a last month about being "too connected" (Public Restroom + Angry Birds = WTF?!) to everyone. I think in this case technology served us well and gave me a fresh appreciation for being "connected".

Pictures coming soon!

2 comments:

  1. thank you so much for my birthday party!! LOL it was much appreciated! too bad we couldn't figure out a way to get some of that fantastic food skyped to me :)

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