Mystery Revealed...

Yeah! We're the men!!

I really wasn't trying to be suspenseful. :) I sat down to blog this morning, but decided to wait until Jacque emailed me a picture from last night (my camera is being repaired). In the meantime, my project for today was to paint the kitchen. In between doing that and taking care of a fussy baby and all the other normal mommy stuff, I never sat down at the computer again. I usually blog late at night. The good news - my kitchen is painted! :)

So...(drum roll please)...

The guys took us to downtown Iowa City where we ate at Hamburg Inn #2. If you've never been there, it is a little college hang-out (I am told) with lots of character and where people dressed anywhere from leather to overalls don't feel out of place at all. After supper we walked a block or so to the Riverside Theatre to see "Guys on Ice". In my opinion, there aren't many things that beat a night at the theatre, so it really was a special treat. The guys were thoughtful in taking us to do something we all love to do, but felt they were getting the last laugh by taking us to a show that was all about ice fishing and football. :)

We had a great time. As we gathered in our kitchen before leaving on our date, we were giggling like school girls. We were so excited and light hearted that any onlooker would have thought we were teenagers heading to prom. (Well, the onlooker couldn't have very good eyesight or he would obviously see that we were far from teenagers - or dressed for prom, but that's beside the point...)

We all had some kind of "head gear". The funny thing was that the guys, after giving us instructions on how to dress, kept discouraging us from wearing everything we came up with. (You should see our feet - leather boots, farmer boots, cowboy boots...) I guess they didn't think we'd have the guts to go all out. Mike even said to Jacque, "I think you girls are trying to embarrass us." Embarrass them?! We were the ones having to wear it! :) It made for a lot of laughs.

In hindsight, the clues were a bit vague, but that was the way they wanted them:

Payback - they took us to a play about ice fishing and football (equivalent to us taking them dancing last year)
Mike's pajamas - blue (water is blue and you ice fish in water) and plaid (warm flannel shirts can be plaid and are worn during ice fishing)
Cost varies by age - the younger ones in our group somehow got a student rate. Jacque did too, because Ernie evidentally thought she was younger than she is. (I think that was a compliment, Jacque!)
Our outfits - Ann and my outfits really were hints. The play took place in Wisconsin and the characters were big Green Bay Packer fans. They even had a "cheese head" hanging on the wall. Ann's flannel "farmer shirt" fit into the same category as Mike's flannel pants.

It was a special night and a fun month of anticipation. To all our guys - way to go. You made our night!