All Write, Already!

When my father turned 50, his (second) wife set up a big surprise party for him, with lots and lots of people attending. They'd be out somewhere the afternoon of his party (it was either his birthday or the day before), and we would all fill the house awaiting his arrival. I drove in from school 900 miles away a few days prior because of the event (missing the better part of a week of classes as a result), and was staying at my mother's house when I made the near fatal mistake of answering the phone when the kids' line rang. It was my dad, and now he knew I was in town. He didn't grill me as to why, and he never put two and two together until one minute before the party when he saw all the cars on his street.

Fast forward a few months shy of two decades, and now I find myself more intimately in on the planning of another surprise 50th birthday event, this time that of my wife. A good friend of ours from out of town talked to me about creating such plans, and insisted that she would come up for such festivities. The wrinkle here is that the big day falls on a Wednesday, so I'm hoping to set up a week-long festival of activities she will enjoy with whomever wants to join us. The things that need to be done are:

1) Talk to a few key people and get their commitments.
2) Based on that, plot out a full schedule of activities -- games, movies, fun.
3) Arrange it so that JJ can take the whole week off from work (not sure how best to do that -- probably tell her to arrange for the week off so she can get her "present" without my giving any details).

I have over half a year to get this set up, but probably best to get the ball rolling. Anyone with any good ideas, feel free to contact me by email.