Super-Secret Project Tell-All!

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me - Dave! The waiting is over - I have Stormy's permission to tell you the whole scoop about Mom's super-secret project! Are you ready?

It all started with a phone call from Aunt Janet back in... I don't know... a bag of Eukanuba ago. There was lots of chit-chatting but the bottom line was this - our mom's mom's 80th birthday was what is now about a week ago and Aunt Janet wanted to throw a surprise party for her! Mom was game to go (to southeast Virginia), if Dad could get off work to keep us company. Woo. Mom decided she should make a quilt to commemorate the occasion. A signature quilt that the family could sign! And how about a nice, usable size?!?! And... it would have been a good idea to start a lot earlier, but let's face it - Mom has all of us here helping her, so I don't know what the problem was. Woo.

Aunt Janet gave Mom some inside info as to what colors our grandma likes and I got busy helping choose fabric. You should have seen some of the things she tried to put in there! She liked my final choices, and I must say, it was a challenge for me, her trusty Guide Dog for the Color Blind, but it all came together real good. I wanted everything to be just right!

We showed you the quilt top, but mentioned that Mom needed to do some fancy calligraphy stuff, remember? Here's how that came out:

Once she got it all written, she heat-set it and sewed it onto the back of the quilt:

I made a final inspection, to make sure it was perfect:

In case you're like my mom and think I'm "in the way", here's another look:

Here's the back:

Hey, look over there on the left. Grandma's quilt has a tail. Ha woo!

After the photo shoot (thanks for holding it, Dad!) Mom folded it all up very carefully, got a bunch of extra pens and put some "practice squares" together:

The plan was for everyone to sign the front of the quilt, in those light squares. Since it's different writing on fabric, she had the practice pieces set for the bipeds to get the feel of things.

Before we knew it, there was hustling and bustling and Mom was smothering us all in kisses and telling us to be good for Dad.... and then...

Mom took this picture out the window of the little plane she took out of Manhattan. She made stops in Dallas, TEXAS!, and Atlanta, Georgia, then was in southeast Virginia!

Once she got to Aunt Janet's, we received some very interesting text message photos. Check them out:

It's our cousin Skyler! Good thing we got that photo before this next one:

That's our cousin Newton. If we didn't know better, we would have thought it was Marvin!!! Mom didn't get a good picture of beautiful cousin Monroe, but we linked to a pic of her in yesterday's post. Be sure to check it out.

Once most of the bipeds who were getting there that night arrived, they (mom, our uncle and aunt from Illinois, Aunt Janet, her hubby and their oldest daughter from northern Virginia!) headed next door to our grandma's house. Aunt Janet rang the doorbell and they started singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!" (Monroe, Newton and Skyler didn't get to join them. I don't know why. We all know how well we canines sing!) When Grandma answered the door, they all switched over to the Happy Birthday song. She was VERY surprised! In fact, very, VERY surprised. Ha woo.

That night and the next day, more of our cousins arrived - from North Carolina, another from Northern Virginia, one from another part of North Carolina (Fort Bragg), and a fiancée from West Point, New York. Mom snuck everyone in to sign the quilt eventually, then borrowed an iron and heat-set everything. Before they headed out to the restaurant for the celebratory (Stormy helped me with that word) dinner, they gave Grandma some special gifts! Aunt Janet made a photo collage of everyone and used a cool birthday plate to frame it! What a special keepsake! Fun cards... And then... Mom gave Grandma our (I mean "her") quilt!

Woo! Surprise, Grandma! We hope you like your special quilt! I hope I got your colors right!!!

It was a very special weekend for everyone - Grandma was blown away by everything! I think she liked seeing everyone best of all!

Our grandma very, very rarely reads our blog, but on the off-chance that she would, we just couldn't say anything. Storm said we needed to practice good OPSEC, and I think we rose to the challenge.

So that's the scoop! A surprise party for our grandma! Pretty cool, don't you think? And fear not, our dad took such very good care of us. He's the one who made the trip possible for Mom. Thanks, Dad!!!

We're getting around to blogs slowly but surely! Thanks for being patient with us.

Luv,

Dave