Birthday surprise for Kylie!

Kylie turns 17 on December 6th but David & I came up with a fun birthday surprise for her that required us to celebrate her birthday a little early...

Last night about 7:40, in the middle of drill team practice (which was scheduled from 7-9), a couple of random boys carried in a box wrapped with a ribbon and on top was a letter. The letter was simply addressed

To: Kylie

Open immediately and read aloud

Where the return address should have been there was only the letter E

This is what the letter said:

My Dearest Kylie,

I know that your 17th birthday is still a couple of weeks away, but I just couldn’t wait to see you. You are all I think about. Your scent is even more intoxicating than Bella’s.

I have arranged for you to come and see me tonight at a private viewing of Twilight. It starts in just a few minutes so you’ll need to hurry. You may bring your friends, but you cannot bring Dylan. Tonight… you are all mine!

And later, when you sleep… I will be watching over you.

Love,
Edward

Inside of the box were treat bags filled with red vampire candy for the girls to take with them. It was the most fun surprise ever! Now, the girls love drill team but they generally prefer performing more than practicing. So to get to skip out of practice and go to a private showing of the hottest new movie out, well, does it get any better than that? The girls owe Lori a big Thank You for making it work. The plan was to surprise all of the girls, not just Kylie, but some people just can't keep a secret. I'll have to ask and see just how many of the girls actually were suprised. I know Kylie was!

I love a good surprise and I'm pretty disciplined about it. I never wanted to know what the sex of my babies were, I never opened my Christmas presents early and I never read the end of a book first. I especially love surprising my kids with things that I know they will love. It's the best! We don't have a ton of surprises around here, but occasionally we come up with a good one. Probably our most consistent surprise over the years to our kids was, "Surprise. You're having another brother or sister!" Actually I suppose after a while that was not too surprising.

As far as Twilight goes, I think they did a pretty good job. For me personally, this is how I felt about the casting. Of course, this is me judging purely on aesthetics and the picture that was in my mind, and giving no credit for acting skills or being a good person cuz I don't know these people ...

Bella was great! Good casting there. Mike was also perfect. Not that he is such an important character but that was just how I pictured him.

Edward would not have been my ideal choice, but he will do. My ideal choice would have been Paul Walker. To me, physically, he is a perfect specimen. (My husband is a close 2nd!)

In general, I did not think the Cullens were nearly good looking enough. These people are supposed to be ridiculously good looking

I did not like:

Esme - She is not pretty enough. Ever since I saw her on Grey's Anatomy she just looks like an accident victim who looks "pretty good" for having had to have her face put back together. Was I the only person out there who was disappointed when they uncovered her new face? A better choice would be the mom from Gossip Girl

Carlisle - Too short, strange nose, overbite and they made him too white. I love this character cuz he is so commanding and so wise but so kind, I really wanted him to look the part. I would have cast Rob Lowe even though he is not that tall either, but his looks make up for it!

Another option for an older couple would be Jacklyn Smith and John Schneider. Maybe the Cullens will find some long lost gradparents!



Rosalie - Not nearly pretty enough! How many gorgeous blondes are there in Hollywood? About a billion? Every blonde on our drill team is prettier than this girl. (I know that's mean, I'm just being superficial for a few minutes here. Please indulge me!) In this role I would make a bold move and cast an unknown - Rosalie Black (what a coincidence, huh?). For those of you that know her (she lives here in Moses Lake and is in my ward) - she is gorgeous. Just to give you an idea of what she looks like, her twin sister has a part-time job as a stand in for Reese Witherspoon. Rosalie has the same look only more classic. Or if Rosalie was too busy with her 3 kids, I would cast country singer Carrie Underwood.

Emmet - He was okay but how much better would Tom Welling be?



Jasper - Come on! Can't we do any better than that? How about Chace Crawford?

I liked Alice! But another good choice would have been this girl from Smallville:

Jacob - yuck! Too short. Bad hair - just because his hair is long doesn't mean it has to look awful. I can't think of anyone that could play this role right off the top of my head but I'm sure there are better choices out there. Any suggestions? Also his friends were extremely unattractive as well. In any love triangle where a girl is torn between two guys, they need to be equally good looking in their own way in order to really feel torn. Come on people!

Lori & Kenzie came up with a good one to play Jacob - our very own Jaymz Tuaileva! Good thinking girls...

Now that would be a cast!

Anyway, it was great fun and we are so grateful to our friends at the theater who made it possible and to so many good friends and fond acquaintances who were able to share it with us - thanks for coming! It was nice to be able to make Kylie feel special because December birthdays generally suck, so this was a nice surprise for one of our two children who have to put up with December birthdays! Happy early Birthday Kylie!