Wow, this sounds like so much fun! Be sure to tell us how it all works out.

Oh I love good surprises! Sounds like great fun!

He will always remember this birthday!

What an awesome surprise. You are a "nationally ranked mother"...what my son says when I please him. Have a fun day.
Judy

How wonderful! Have a great day and best wishes to your DS!

Fantastic! Hope your camera is ready to go!

What jmck said: Mom of the Year status for sure!

What a lovely thing you're doing for your son! It will be a birthday he'll never forget.

Well, it's been a great success so far. When they arrived, DS was just waking up. The kids snuck in and gathered on the porch, and I got DS to come downstairs quickly by telling him that his sister had caught a bunny (guess he was still half asleep to believe that!). He walked in the kitchen and all his friends yelled Surprise! DS is fairly reserved so we didn't get a big reaction (he said "oh. oh.") but after he'd recovered (and put on a shirt and brushed his teeth) he was really happy. They are a terrific bunch of kids and they are having a lot of fun already. They had lunch, played in the yard a bit, then headed down to the beach.

Here they are waiting on the porch for him. I think a few are hiding -- there are 12 kids.

Fun !! What a great Mom !! c

These kids are good sports. We just crashed their party at the beach and made them pose for pics. I jokingly said they should make a pyramid and voila! They even put little sister on top! My DS is on the bottom, second one in from the right (between the two guys in sunglasses).

Oh such fun! What a great surprise, and picture of the group. He's going to have such a memorable day. You rock Mom!

How much fun and what a great memory for everyone! I love the beach photo-it would make a perfect souvenir for them all!

Nice going, mom! :)

What a great Mom you are! He will always remember this day!

Thanks all. Everyone just left, including DS who is going with his GF's family to Cape Cod for a couple of days. The kids all had a great time and were so appreciative. I'm always so impressed with his group of friends. Anyway, everything went so well and I'm now glad it's over! It wasn't easy to keep the secret for all this time.

Sue, that is such a great thing to do! My DH's birthday is 8/16, and he said he never really had a party because his family came here to the Cape every Summer. His parents, in the 60s-70s, would never have thought of something so sweet.

I have a feeling it's going to be nice here on the Cape this next fews days. It's funny, a lot of the regular Summer peeps are already heading home because of kids' sports. I think that's really sad.

Beth P

Today is actually my DH's birthday...DS' is the 15th. Fortunately DH had a fun day too -- even though he had to grill about a hundred hamburgers and hot dogs.

I know what you mean about sports. We had to change our later-August vacation schedule once DS started high school. He starts pre-season practices next week. I'm sure the schools that start classes before Labor Day are starting sports this week or even earlier.

What a nifty thing to do. Looks like a good time was had by all. What a great looking group of kids.

What a great idea, sueb20! So glad your ds enjoyed his special day.

Speaking of school, it's always so interesting to see how different areas of the country do things. My kids start school this week; a couple of the area schools actually started this past week, on Aug. 9. School ended around here about May 22, though. (I am in in the Deep South--southwest Louisiana--if you go much deeper, you'll be in the Gulf of Mexico, lol)

Love the photos

Yeah, most schools here start pretty soon, mostly next week. I grew up in NYS, and we never started before Labor Day, but we finished ~June 25. Here they are out first week of June.

This is such a beautiful thread. Sue, you are doing everything right. I am happy for your day.

So glad that it worked out so well...great job, Mom! You really created a wonderful lifetime memory for him and all his buds.

What a wonderful memory for him....sooo glad it turned out well!!

Sueb,
Too cool! What a wonderful thing to do.

Judy(jmck)'
Hee, hee, nationally ranked mother...utt-oh, you have some competition. Don't tell your son how sueb upped the game.

Can you be my "Mom II"??!?!?!

That's pretty cool there SueB!

Faron

Loved reading this.. Made me nostalgic for those years, and BTW...your son is GORGEOUS! Which one is his ( lucky) GF?

You totally win the prize. Well done, Mom.

Oh thanks, everyone. Your comments are so sweet. We are so fortunate to have a great DS. Hate to compare my kids, although it can be hard not to (!), but after having such a rocky road with our other DS, we appreciate these typical teenage experiences with younger DS and especially appreciate that he has been an amazingly easy child his whole life. And he has made such smart choices in his life -- particularly the friends he spends his time with. These are funny, hardworking, smart kids who don't drink, do drugs, or other stupid things that so many kids are doing. When DS was a freshman, we talked about drinking and drugs and what groups of kids were doing what, and he said to me "I'm going to surround myself with people who are good for my education." And he really has done that. Don't know where he came from...DH and I were not that smart about life at that age!

Martinca, his lucky GF is second row of the pyramid, last one on the right. (She's also next to him in the pic below, wearing a black sweatshirt.) They have a nice relationship. They have been part of the same group of friends since the beginning of high school and only started dating after being friends for two years. Now they've been "together" for almost a year.

One final pic that DH took with his fancy camera. I love this one. I told DS it looks like the J Crew catalog.

BTW love the nationally ranked mom comment. I'm gonna use that. To describe myself to my kids!

These kids will probably be friends for life. So wonderful that you, as parents, nurture their special group relationship.

LOL, what a wonderful party idea. And yes, totally J Crew. If they aren't selling that line, they should.

When you can share experiences like this, it makes all the effort worth it. This is part of what we buy and create and decorate our spaces for, IMHO.