The birthday project

The lawnmower powered down as I parked in the driveway and motioned to my husband.
“Sharon wants us to come up tonight and help get ready for the party.”
He looked at the lawn, the sun, and considered the rainy week we had just had and a weekend of rain predicted. He loves visiting, but projects grab his attention faster than parties.
“Let me put the mower in before you park. What time will we be getting back?” he asked.
I had no idea – I had a list of ideas of places to visit in the big city.
We threw a change of clothes into overnight bags and arrived in central Arkansas in time to wish the grandchildren a good night’s sleep. My four-year-old grandson wanted to show me how he can climb into the top bunk, “I couldn’t do this when I was a baby, but now I am a big boy,” he told me.
The birthday girl gave me a Shirley Temple smile, a hug and grabbed a book for me to read. She did not want to get into the toddler bed. “You can always sleep in the baby bed, if you don’t want to stay in bed,” I nodded at the crib waiting for her coming-soon sister. She snuggled down and stayed in bed.
In the kitchen my daughter handed me a cake mix, a bowl and cupcake pans. “Make these up. Then do you want to go to the store with me? I need to pick up a couple things for the party. The guys can take the cupcakes out,” she said.
Our quick trip became our weekly grocery shopping trip. An hour later, laden with groceries and a birthday gift I had found in place of the cash I had intended to give, we returned to the house and a couple of trays of very done cupcakes.
Not burned, just dry.
The guys assured us they watched the cupcakes, had checked them every few minutes. “But every time I put in a toothpick it came out with something on it,” my husband said. And I thought he knew the touch test – barely a week before he had made moist, delicious cupcakes with the older granddaughters.
“They’ll be okay,” my daughter sighed and handed us the can of frosting. We began swirling on the frosting. She snipped the tip off the red gel decorating tube and began making stripes, dots, circles and swirls on the cupcakes. She stepped back and did a double take, “It looks like ketchup.”
It did look like ketchup, but it would have to do.
She pulled out carrots and celery, “These are too big for the toddlers. They need to be quartered,” she plunked down a bag of baby carrots and a celery stalk.
My husband began slicing celery beside me. With three of us working, we quickly finished party preparations and went to bed.
The next morning the little ones came quietly out of their rooms. The four-year-old looked at the cupcakes and broke the silence to ask, “why do they have ketchup on them?”
“It just looks like ketchup, it really is frosting,” I explained.
He looked at me doubtfully and went to play.
His sister did not see the cupcakes, but she did join me and her mom for an early morning ride to check out a couple yard sales and grab a quick cup of coffee before the 10 a.m. party. It was fun until we got caught in the traffic jam that blocked our exit from the parking lot at the fast food joint. Backing her way out against the flow of traffic, my daughter found space to turn and leave the jam.
While she dashed around with last-minute preparations, my husband arranged fruits and vegetables on the trays. That finished, he began blowing up the kiddy-sized bouncy room for the toddlers. He sat and he blew and blew until the neighbor arrived with a vacuum cleaner and attachment that worked. He watched the children ride around on the Thomas the Train electric riding toy we found at a yard sale last year before he went out to the yard to toss a football around with the guys – for a while, but not for long. The trays of cupcakes with ketchup-looking decorations appeared with the ceremonial candles, a rendition of the birthday song and “blow out the candles and make-a-wish” – with momma sneaking in a candle-quenching puff – the birthday girl kept blowing up through her bottom lip. She never said a thing about the ketchup decor. She nibbled her cupcake daintily and then tugged and pulled on wrapping paper to find her presents. Two gifts had some assembly required: a doll’s ensemble of a trike, bed and table to go with a toddler-sized doll and a sand table for backyard entertainment. Grandpa sat down at the couch and began opening bags of plastic parts and snapping them together.
As the guests left he began gathering up and putting away food, torn wrapping paper and party dishes and wiping sticky off the floor. While the men put the children down for a nap, I went shopping with my daughter. I was just checking out when he called wondering when I would be returning. He packed us quickly into the car and drove straight home
A man with a mission, he ran groceries and packages into the house, revved up the lawnmower and shaved an inch or two off the grass before the sunset.
One weekend project done! And only one interruption for a party.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com.)