This weekend was a blur…a wedding in Virginia, my son’s fourth birthday party and (oh yes) I can’t forget …my hair caught on fire!
On Friday night, I caught a Greyhound bus to Hampton, VA. (I haven’t caught a bus home since college days!) My dad was having a wedding celebration in VA on Saturday evening, so the bus schedule was the only thing that worked out.
I thought that I would take a (kid-free: I left the kids at home with my husband) nap once I arrived on Saturday morning. I was (happily) wrong. My sister and her kids met my mom and me at a great breakfast place. Then, I spent the rest of the day with my mom doing girly things (salon/shopping, etc.) and catching up. Afterwards, I went to my dad’s wedding reception. It was a lot of fun. Great food, great music and (best of all) my dad and his new bride seemed really happy. After, the reception, my dad drove me to the bus station and waited with me until the bus came. It was great having some one on one time with my dad. Our relationship has grown so much over the years. I’m so happy to be his daughter!
So my bus arrived back in NYC on Sunday morning. Then, I needed to wait two hours for the subway to take me home. I was so happy when I finally set foot in my home. I was only gone one full day, but I really missed my husband and kids. (Note to self: don’t ever take a job that requires a lot of travel!)
Once I got home, I had 45 minutes to get ready to go to church. We made it on time. However, I missed most of the service, because I was running around looking for the perfect birthday cake to match my son’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” cake topper that I had ordered from Amazon/ The PartyWorks.com. I ended up getting two cakes – one for the pirates and one for the princesses.
As soon as service was over, my husband and I jumped in our car to go set up for Michael’s “Pirate and Princess” party that started an hour later. Overall, everything went really well. (I have really, great helpful friends and family!) Everyone seemed to have a great time. The girls had fun with their princess activities, especially the face-painting. The boys had fun with their pirate ones, especially “Pirate Sean” singing pirate songs while playing his guitar. One of my favorite parts was that one of the smallest girls at the party was the one who pulled the string that brought all of the candy/toys down from the Pirates of the Caribbean string piñata. I was also happy that there was room for everyone to move around freely (1500 square feet). For the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel claustrophobic at a big birthday party. Most of all, I was happy that my son “loved” his party.
Oh yes, my hair catching on fire… At the end of the party, we were getting ready to sing “Happy Birthday” to Michael. I had already gotten over the fact that some unnamed person had placed a phone book on top of my cake topper ruining it. Oh well, Michael still had two cakes – he would be okay. So, three of the candles were lit, but my husband was having a hard time with the fourth candle. I leaned over to help get the wick out. All of a sudden, I see flames – coming from my hair – one of the candles had lit my hair on fire! Thank God that I don’t use a lot of hair product or this story might not have had such a happy ending. I was able to quickly put out the hair fire. Then, we promptly finished lighting the candles, sang for my son, and served the cakes. That’s what we moms do…keep on keeping on Fortunately, I didn’t lose any hair in the incident. Some of the guests and I were joking about my “Michael Jackson” moment.
After the party, we went to an (unexpected) early St. Patrick’s Day dinner (corned beef and cabbage) over my husband’s aunt’s house. Suffice it to say, by the end of the week-end I was a zombie…albeit a happy one. My dad was happy. My son was happy. Who could ask for anything more?