Murphy’s Law

I was quite relaxed about L’s birthday party tomorrow. Everything was organized and, while we’re having nearly 50 people here (!!!), I was not stressed out. But tonight, a series of incidents have made my blood pressure rise.

First, it took longer than I anticipated to clean up the deck and patio area. We’re doing some games outside and I wanted the fallen leaves blown away and the dead remnants of our perennial grasses, flowers and bushes cut back and cleaned out. By the time that was done, I was a little behind on my “to-do” list.

Next it was time to work on the cake. I’m making a castle cake and it’s quite a project. Four layers of cake with ice cream cone towers and a moat. It’s going to be REALLY cool - I hope I can post a good photo of it tomorrow. So I’m coating the ice cream cones in melted chocolate and sparkly sprinkles and letting them harden on wax paper when C comes by and grabs one, leaving two big, messy fingerprints in my sprinkle-coated chocolate. (When did she even get tall enough to reach the top of the stove???) It was the last cone I had and I yelled. Then I felt terrible about yelling at her. I know I can’t expect to be a perfect parent, but I just hate it when I set a bad example. No harm done in the end - I fixed the sprinkles, but lost a little time.

When C’s bedtime came, she decided tonight would be a lovely night to give me a hard time. I suppose it was the lack of attention she got from me today. She will normally go to sleep on her own, but tonight there was lots of crying, banging on the door, and coughing until she gagged. She’s just getting over a cold, so I hated to let her cry so hard on top of the coughing. I went in and cuddled with her until she fell asleep. There goes another 20 minutes.

All this time, bread was baking in my bread machine. When I came out of C’s room, I smelled smoke. Thinking PHAT Daddy burned some toast or something, I casually went downstairs and asked, “What’s burning?”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Don’t you smell that?”

He went into the kitchen and said, “I do now.” So we’re walking around the house trying to figure out what was burning and L starts freaking out. He’s sensitive about stuff like this, so he had his shoes on and the phone in his hand in seconds, ready to call the fire department and run out of the house. We finally figured out that a piece of the dough had somehow gotten thrown out of the inner pan and was resting on the heating element inside the bread machine.

I couldn’t get the stray dough out without turning off the machine, and I wasn’t able to save the bread. At that point it was time for L to go to bed, but he was completely worked up and pumping adrenaline. Finally, it’s 9:25 and he is asleep. I am finishing up this post, then I need to clean up the bread machine, finish frosting the cake, wash the dishes, set up some tables and chairs, and make lists for the treasure/scavenger hunt (which I think PHAT Daddy is doing now!). Hopefully I’ll get some sleep tonight.

This is going to be an awesome party.