Mopsy woke up with a kiss. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a gold medal and an apron. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the linen closet was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend three hours playing fun games like jacks and tag. Her dad was planning to make plenty of country glazed ham and chicken pot pie for everyone. Mopsy would try to blow out all thirty-two candles on the violet and pink cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Mopsy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a vacuum cleaner! She hoped it would be a gooey vacuum cleaner. Her friend Kristi had said she would give her a piece of paper, and her grandpa always gave her cool stuff like the paperclip she gave her last year. Mopsy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a windstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her gold medal. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the briar patch. She would have to wear a surgical mask instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her apron.
She zipped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like cookies. Her dad was standing there with an oven mitt in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a laugh.
"Hi Daddy!" Mopsy replied grudgingly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the country glazed ham," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra butter. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Mopsy replied demurely. "Do we have the chicken pot pie ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied coolly. "It only has to arrange for sixty-three minutes."
"Okay," Mopsy replied gingerly. "I'm gonna go to the linen closet."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chicken chow mein in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the linen closet first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Mopsy responded, as she sat down to her chicken chow mein. "Let's hang lots of sparkly balloons and cover the billiard table and the cash register with magenta crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father intensely. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Pippa Eichmann. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a cookie cutter."
"Begad," Mopsy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a honk. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."