<p>No one would be gullible enough to believe both parents had to be there to redeem a coupon. If my kid told me that I would just go online to order it. The best way to do it would be to enlist their friend’s help.</p>
<p>Or start cooking somewhere else and surprise them when you/food arrive for the finishing touches.</p>
<p>oldfort, you’re right. I need to come up with a more compelling story.</p>
<p>Just a thought from another perspective: can you buy them movie tickets, or a gift card and hand it to them and announce they are getting the royal treatment from you, but they can’t come back until X o’clock? It does lessen the surprise, but they still won’t know exactly what is going to happen or what they are eating, it lessens the make-a-story stress for you. Again, as a parent, it would not diminish my happiness one whit.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions!</p>
<p>In our community it is the norm for invitations to movies/dinner/whatever else to include the whole family, so my parents are sure to smell a rat if somebody asks just the two of them over for a while. That was a very good idea, though.</p>
<p>I’m thinking of maybe mixing up greenbutton’s and Classof2015’s suggestions - my parents normally go shopping for groceries during the weekend, so I could tell them to take their time (and not buy a takeout for dinner, lol) because my brother and I have something special planned. Not wholly satisfied with the idea, but as dinner is only half the deal it doesn’t ruin the entire surprise… that’s the best I can come up with for the moment.</p>