You are never too old to learn important lessons

As you know this past weekend we celebrated 2 birthdays at our house. I had been planning this party for some time. Sophie told me months ago that she wanted a mermaid party. She LOVES mermaids. I thought that would work out perfectly because we could do fish for Sam and have an Under the Sea theme. I began looking online for invitations and could find what I wanted so I decided to make them myself. I found a website that gave ideas for just this kind of party. I immediately began planning. This was going to be great.

I searched for the perfect cake for Sophie and I found it. It was going to be one of those Barbie cakes. The bottom part of the cake which is usually a dress was a sandy rock with waves crashing at the bottom with a mermaid on top. Sophie loved it! So we printed to the picture and took it the bakery. I explained exactly what I wanted and left the picture with them.

I have to admit that I did not have a lot of confidence in this bakery after our initial meeting. But I kept telling myself that it would be ok that the person I was talking to was not the actual baker. And they had the picture and one of those Barbie cakes on display. It would be ok.

Well the day we were supposed to pick it up I was still feeling uneasy about it so I called to see if they needed anything else - you know just make sure everything was in order. The manager of the bakery assured me it would be fine.

So I went on with the day's activities which included my friend Amanda coming over to decorate Sam's cupcakes. She did a GREAT job. They looked exactly like I wanted them to look. I could not have been more pleased.

Meanwhile Scott was picking up Sophie's cake. When he arrived home I could not wait to see this mermaid cake.

I opened the box.

I felt my body go tingly.

It looked NOTHING like the picture.

Tears filled my eyes.

I could not see straight. (Just in case you don't know I tend to overreact). I had to get Sophie out of the room so I could assess this situation. I could not believe that this was the cake for my sweet Sophie's 5th birthday. I won't go into a lot of details let's just say it was hideous. Amanda quickly went into rescue mode and Scott got on the phone. Scott got the bakery to agree to giving us a gift card and Amanda started adding icing and adjusting the mermaid. We fixed it the best we could.

At this point we let Sophie see it as we told her how beautiful we thought it was (you know it is all in the presentation) and she smiled. She said she liked it. Scott kept reminding me that was all that mattered - what Sophie thought. But I was still not convinced. I just wanted to cry.

Well that night as I was bathing Sophie and Sam I asked Sophie if she like her cake. She told me that it was everything she dreamed it would be. How precious is that? More tears.

They next day was the party. Sophie was thrilled with her cake and I even heard at least one other child exclaim, "Look at that mermaid cake!"

I bet Sophie thanked me 5 times during her party. She and Sam both had a great time. It seemed that the other kids had a good time as well. I got lots of compliments on the cupcakes (thanks again Amanda) and I thought the cake tasted yummy.

So the lessons I learned (lessons that should have been learned before I turned 35) are listen to your instincts and don't sweat the small stuff.

Oh and one last note Sam had his 2 year well visit today. He is doing great. In the 4 1/2 months he has been home he has gained 5 1/2 pounds and grown nearly 2 inches. YEAH! He now weighs 27.5 pounds and stands 33.5 inches tall.