Surprise! It's Your Birthday!

Last night I surprised Walter with a birthday meal at the local Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse restaurant.  He had thought that the family bowling outing on Saturday was his birthday party. And it was, but I also wanted him to celebrate with other seniors.  We have a great group of friends from our church.  I filled the tables with twelve of them.  They were happy to be included.

I told Walter that one of the attendees was being surprised and he never suspected that we were really gathering for him.  Side note: we also celebrated her birthday too.  It would have just been rude not to celebrate for her too.  She jumped when the chef tricked her with a squeeze bottle turned towards her. Don't worry only a string came out, no sauce.

So we all met at 5:30 for the early bird specials.  This was in keeping with the theme - "You're 62, what are you going to do?"

Here are some pictures from last night.  We had two chefs so the cooking was finished at the same time.  We laughed at the tricks the chefs had for us.  They were great entertainment.



Guests Enjoying Their Soup & Salads

Flames at One of the Tables

Volcano Flames Through the Onions

Guests Interacting with the Chef

Chef Tosses Salt Into the Flames for Sparkle

Guests Eat the Great Habachi Food

Walter Will Have His Picture on the Restaurant Wall - Cake Not Visable Here

Guest Whose Birthday Was On the 28th Also Celebrated

Howard made a three layer red velvet cake for Walter.  It was delicious,  I was so busy trying to cut the cake into twelve portions that I failed to get a photo of it.  People also gave him cards and a round jigsaw puzzle.  He loved it all!

Before dessert was served we played a game of How Well Do You Know Walter.  I gave each guest a list of six questions.  The answers were multiple choice.  A good friend only got one answer correct, to which he said "I guess I don't know you at all".  Here are the questions.

Facts about Walter T., Sr.

1)      Walter’s middle name is

a)      Tommy

b)      Thomas

c)       Tilton

d)      Timmy

2)      His favorite NASCAR driver is

a)      Darrell Waltrip

b)      Jeff Gordon

c)       Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

d)      Kenny Wallace

3)      His favorite service done recently through church

a)      Building ramps

b)      Serving as a deacon

c)       Giving financial advice to a couple in debt

d)      Sharing about his sobriety

4)      What craft did he most recently finish?

a)      Latch hook rug

b)      Bird puzzle

c)       Lord’s Supper puzzle

d)      Wooden playhouse

5)      What past experience did he enjoy the most?

a)      Running his own real estate office

b)      Assistant cruise director

c)       Bowling with his grandchildren

d)      Giving 5 gallons of blood

6)      Why did he lose his leg?

a)      Car accident

b)      Military causality

c)       Shot by a jealous husband

d)      Hunting accident

I will not give you the answers.  You just have to imagine the correct answers.  The last question caused some good natured teasing.  On the way out the guest blew bubbles of good wishes towards Walter.  That was just something from his childhood that he enjoyed so I decided to end his "childhood of 61 years" by blowing bubbles.  One of my favorite memories of this evening will be the 81 year old woman guest who out blew all the others and her laughter was glorious.  We were all children again last night if only in our minds.  God is good!