Sarah's 2nd Birthday Party: Totally Buggin'

Strange thing, this getting older. One day, "party planning" means having enough rum, condoms and Jimmy Buffett albums; the next, it's making sure you have enough sippy cups and plastic ladybug headgear that blinks.

Today, we threw Sarah's 2nd birthday party at home.

Sarah is fond of ladybugs, so The Bride ordered a bunch of ladybug-themed party supplies: banners, cake decorations, balloons, as well as that aforementioned blinking headgear. Doesn't it seem odd that certain members of the insect kingdom -- ladybugs, catepillars, bumblebees -- are considered "appropriate" for children's parties, while others are left in the cold? I mean, when's the last time somebody threw a Vietnamese Hissing Cockroach-themed party for their toddler?

Anyway, about an hour before the party, I ran the last errand: pick up the cake from the supermarket. Easy enough, right? The guy at the bakery counter asked me for the name on the cake, and I told him. He checked, then carried over this massive, blown-out pink box that looked like it had been used to transport heavy artillery to Kabul. I flipped open the lid; the cake looked fine. "Happy Birthday Sarah." Spelled the right way.

But something else seemed off. The top was adorned with butter-cream butterflies (yeah, another "safe" insect for children's parties). I distinctly remembered that The Bride had requested the top of the cake to resemble grass, so that she could place the ladybug cake decorations all over it.

I would have argued, but it was hot, and I was running out of time. Butterflies it was. I drove back home to discover my mother-in-law had arrived early. Yay!

Showed the cake to The Bride. She shook her head. "Nope, this is the wrong cake." She didn't ask for butterflies. She wanted grass. The fact that this was the wrong cake was confirmed at 4 p.m., when we sang "Happy Birthday" and cut into the cake, revealing it was vanilla layer -- not marble, as The Bride had requested.

Sarah loved it anyway; I've never seen her smile like she did today. She was in her glory all day long.

But I can't help but think about the other Sarah, somewhere in the City of Philadelphia, celebrating her birthday, and wondering how she wound up with a marble cake with a fucking lawn on top.