Last February I purchased tickets for the family to see Marianas Trench in concert (A Canadian pop band... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHyYzezYWe0 ) but didn't tell the kids. They continued to hear ads and continued to wish they could go. They've never been to a rock concert before.
Last week YoungerChild pleaded to be allowed to go, wanted to use her own saved-up money to buy tickets, no less. It was agonizing but we managed to continue to deny her the concert, telling her tickets are expensive, the show is sold-out, anything we could think to tell her other than "the truth".
We managed to stay completely mum. Concert day arrived and I developped a plan to keep the secret right until we arrived at the stadium. I kept the girls thinking they were going to their regular activities at the YMCA. I "accidentally" lost track of time so that they were running a little late, but that's OK, we'll still get there. Then Hubby called home pretending to be very sick and needed to be picked-up at work. So off we went, but in the wrong direction for the YMCA. As we neared his office I apologized to the kids that I should have dropped them off at the YMCA first, because now they were going to be a full half-hour late. They weren't very happy with me but without anything they could do to alter the situation they accepted my apology. With hubby safely in the car I headed to the expressway - the fastest way to the YMCA. But oh my: I took the wrong exit. ElderChild lamented "It's like we were never meant to get to the "Y" today!". I held my tongue and pulled into the nearest parkinglot, explaining I would just turn the car around so we could get back onto the expressway. And then I promptly parked in that lot. The kids had confused looks on their faces, not quite having realised that we were at the stadium. I sighed, as tho I was exasperated with the drive... reached into my purse... and produced the concert tickets. It took a moment for the kids to realise what was going-on...
SQUEALS, SCREAMS, CHEERS, HUGS!!
Once we were inside and had found our seats, YoungerChild leaned over to me and said "Mommy, you fake "taking a wrong turn" much better than Daddy fakes being sick!".
