During the nearly ten months that Cara has been at Southgate Coins, she’s had the privilege of participating in everyone’s birthday, except her own. Finally, on July 1, 2009, her turn arrived as she got to celebrate a milestone birthday—her 21st—complete with surprise visitors and all! Read on to learn more...
As with every celebration at Southgate Coins, there’s always a ton of effort put forth by everyone, especially when there are surprises involved. You see, for this birthday, I (Maya) conspired with Nicole to make sure that even though she wasn’t scheduled to work on Cara’s big day, Nicole would still be able to drop by for a surprise visit. After us girls decided what presents to get and who would be wrapping (or bagging) what, I text-messaged Nicole and asked her to call me on my cell phone when she arrived at the store. That allowed me to sneak her in without Cara knowing.
Nicole hid in the conference office, Cara and I straightened the shipping department, and Marie and Crystal stood ready until we heard Rusty play the “Birthday Song over the ceiling speakers. It caught Cara off guard and she and I made our way over to where the festivities were. It’s always funny, too, because even if you’ve participated in many birthday parties at Southgate Coins (like I have), you never know what to expect for yours!
Now, here’s Crystal to tell you more about the celebration:
When Cara came over to the party area, Rusty, Marie, Nicole, and I (Crystal) were already decked out in birthday hats and were blowing our noise makers. Cara sat in the birthday-girl chair, and donned her special birthday hat, while Rusty took pictures of her and her colorful birthday cake (which Nicole will tell you about a little later).
Of course, being the picture people that we are, we all had to get in on the fun, and took lots of pictures with the birthday girl. Then, Rusty had us pile all of Cara’s presents in her lap—which seemed like almost too many for her to hold—so he could get a picture of her before she started tearing into them.
First, Cara opened the presents from Nicole, Maya, and me. The first bag was filled with many things for the new Yorkshire Terrier puppy that her family just gave her. The gift bag was filled with toys for the puppy, treats, pet-odor Febreze, and a book on everything an owner of a Yorkshire Terrier needs to know. The second bag we gave her was strictly for her—a cute tee-shirt with a funny 21st-birthday song title on it, and an “Irish Princess” goblet.
After Cara opened the gifts from us girls, she opened her presents from Rusty and Marie. She received such things as a cute, stripped beach bag and a huge beach towel, a The Alchemist book, along with a cute bookmark with yorkie puppy pictures on it, ginger bath scrub, and much more. She looked so excited and it was so much fun to see what present she would open next.
After presents, it was cake and ice cream time. Nicole will tell you all about that.
I (Nicole) was very excited to be able to come in and be a part of Cara’s 21st birthday celebration with everyone at Southgate Coins. Of course the best part of any celebration (for me anyway) is the food!
With Cara being crazy about everything chocolate-mint-flavored, Rusty and Marie got her a birthday cake and ice cream that delighted her taste buds! Her chocolate cake was decorated with lovely flowers, white buttercream frosting, and Junior Mints, while her ice cream was the amazing Baskin Robins’ Mint Chocolate Chip! All us girls commented on how colorful the food looked with the bright green ice cream, and the multicolored cake.
After finishing our fills of birthday cake and ice cream (and trying to save some for Cara to take home to her family), I was sad to have to leave all the fun. But on her milestone celebration with lots of fun and surprises, we all wished Cara the best 21st birthday ever and many more memories to come — and loads of pleasure from her new puppy, of course; haha!