Yesterday was Monkey's two year birthday party. I woke up, ran my usual mental checklist, then realized it was exactly one year ago that I had done all this before.
Except then I was nine months pregnant with Corbin, who would be born the next morning.
It was like a slap in the face. Pow. You don't have a baby to show for that pregnancy. You won't be celebrating his one year birthday while watching him eat cake and smother himself in icing. You won't be proudly watching him open his presents for the first time or taking pictures of all the cute clothes and loud toys.
Because he's not here.
Like I said, a slap in the face.
But I had to focus on Monkey. It was his birthday party (celebrated two days early so it would fall on a weekend) and I was going to try my hardest to make it wonderful.
I chose a Spongebob theme since it is Monkey's favorite. I started decorating early with the usual balloons, streamers, and other Spongebob colored items.
I was planning on about 8 children showing up and I had set up a cupcake decorating station on the dining room table. There were gummy bears, crushed Oreos, and sprinkles along with different colored icings for the kids to choose from.
Monkey had gone to church with Papaw so I had plenty of time to bake.
I went with mini cupcakes to make it easier on the kids to eat, and sheet cake to make my own Spongebob cake, and two little personal cakes to use up the rest of the cake batter.
While those were baking, I mixed white frosting with food coloring to get the colors I would need to decorate the cake. Once the cakes were cooled off, I started.
It was fun!
I went with a simple design I had found offline that didn't look too hard.
The end product was awesome! I was so proud of myself.
Only one kid was able to make it because everyone else was sick, but Monkey had a blast none the less. He and Rory were pumped on sugar and chocolate and covered in sprinkled and green icing. It was fun!
And that's not even the whole story!
Around 3, when the party started, it also starting POURING snow. I'm talking thick, fat, clumpy snowflakes. The kind that look amazing and beautiful but also that down down power lines and break tree limbs.
So after the guests had left, around 5:30, the power goes off.
*siiiiiiigh*
When it started to get dark, we drug two big comfy chairs into the kitchen to have a little camp-out. I read books with Monkey, eating popcorn, and jamming to Kelly Clarkson. Monkey had a blast jumping on the chair, singing into his little flashlight.
It was way too dark to get a good picture of him dancing, but if you look closely at the next picture, you can see Monkey sitting down in the chair.
Now comes the good part.
After Monkey went to bed, Hubby went to "The Walmart" to get some munchies since we couldn't cook anything. He came back with chips and some lanterns.
All was good until he spilled some of the fluid then hit the lighter.
POOF
UP IN FLAMES went the lantern, Hubby drops it to the floor
-more fluid spills
-bigger flames
-linoleum floor catches on fire
-BIGGER flames
-I start freaking out
So Hubby yells at me to open the front door so he can kick the lantern out into the snow. I open the door, he takes a good kick, and BAM, the lantern gets stuck behind the door.
ACK!
-door mat catches on fire
-I freak out some more, yelling at Hubby to get some snow
-I toss the mat outside into the snow
-Grab a handful of snow and start chucking it into the kitchen to put the flames out
-Flames are out, lantern is outside, crisis averted!
All you hear is heavy breathing and you can taste burnt plastic.
I am visibly shaken. All I could think of during that very short 2 minutes was that our house was going to burn down. Our house is doing to burn down, I'm going to have to make those split second decisions on what to grab from the house, I'm going to have to remember really fast where the important documents are, and I'm going to have to grab our sleeping son from his room and run out into the freezing cold snow to watch our house burn down.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
I really thought that was it.
Thank God we were able to get the fire under control, it really could have been a lot worse and honestly could have taken over quite fast. Just for the record, COLEMAN lanterns are dangerous!! It was a stupid mistake on Hubby's part, he will admit, for lighting the lantern indoors, but really, who would have thought how fast the fire would spread and how high the flames would get. It was scary!!
So.
After all the excitement and still no power, we head to bed. By now it's around 11pm. Next Monkey wakes up; he's fallen out of bed. So up I am to go put him back to bed, I lay back down, close my eyes, let out a heavy sigh, then FLASH!! The power is back on and the bedroom light flicks on and I'm blinded. GAH! I let out a sigh of relief that the power is back on, I go throughout the house to turn off all the lights, then I'm finally able to go to sleep.
What a day huh?!
