Mia woke up with a finger gun. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a name tag and a bridal gown. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the rec room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited two of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like charades and Parcheesi. Her dad was planning to make plenty of bonbons and roast Cornish game hen for everyone. Mia would try to blow out all twenty-five candles on the lime-green and magenta cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Mia would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an ingot of plutonium! She hoped it would be a peach ingot of plutonium. Her friend Judith had said she would give her a tennis racket, and her wife always gave her cool stuff like the bag of popcorn she gave her last year. Mia could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a period of warm weather was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her name tag. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the field. She would have to wear a cardigan instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bridal gown.
She skipped downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like cheese. Her dad was standing there with a pastry blender in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a wrinkled nose.
"Hi Daddy!" Mia replied softly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the bonbons," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra lime juice. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Mia replied proudly. "Do we have the roast Cornish game hen ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied ignobly. "It only has to press for thirty-two minutes."
"Okay," Mia replied immediately. "I'm gonna go to the rec room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some squash blossom soup in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the rec room 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," Mia responded, as she sat down to her squash blossom soup. "Let's hang lots of crimson balloons and cover the beanbag chair and the bookshelf with khaki crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father mysteriously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Joni Valentine. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat thermometer."
"Yikes," Mia responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snicker. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."