The Birthday Blunder

For any kid, turning ten is a big deal. We’re talking double digits here. Practically a pre-teen! For Kelsey’s 10th birthday, we wanted to make it extra memorable, so we went the extra mile and had a very special birthday cake made. It featured a beautiful photo of her actually imprinted on the icing. When the big moment came, I lit the candles and walked the cake from the kitchen into the living room as everyone sang “Happy Birthday.” As I lowered the cake down for her to blow out the candles, a big smile appeared across her face when she noticed her picture on the icing. But in an instant, that smile turned to a look of horror when the cake started to slide off the plate toward her. My best attempt to save the cake failed, as the whole room full of guests watched it tumble off the plate, candles still lit, landing upside down – hot pink frosting and all – on the living room carpet! Fully aware of the “three-second rule”, I instantly reached down and scooped the cake up with my bare hands and flipped it back over onto the plate. The frosting photo featuring my daughter’s likeness now looked like some sort of mutated space-alien! I gave Kelsey the “Daddy made everything OK” look, which she clearly didn’t buy. Instead, she burst into tears, screaming “You’ve ruined my cake … you’ve ruined my party,” and ran out of the room.

I looked to my wife, hoping for a little support in front of our guests. But as she was staring at the frosting smushed into the floor, her only response was “And you’ve ruined my carpet.”