Doralene woke up with a crow. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a pair of pajamas and a trench coat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the kitchen was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-three of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like Parcheesi and chess. Her dad was planning to make plenty of borscht and banana split for everyone. Doralene would try to blow out all twenty-two candles on the scarlet and navy blue cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Doralene would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a hand puppet! She hoped it would be a porcelain hand puppet. Her friend Bailey had said she would give her a kite, and her friend always gave her cool stuff like the baseball she gave her last year. Doralene could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hailstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her pair of pajamas. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the dumpster. She would have to wear a kilt instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her trench coat.
She sauntered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a spring rain. Her dad was standing there with a Sham-Wow! in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a guffaw.
"Hi Daddy!" Doralene replied warily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the borscht," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra pickled peppers. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Doralene replied later. "Do we have the banana split ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eight o'clock to start that," her father replied patiently. "It only has to fry for twenty-nine minutes."
"Okay," Doralene replied patiently. "I'm gonna go to the kitchen."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some fried eggs in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the kitchen 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," Doralene responded, as she sat down to her fried eggs. "Let's hang lots of peach balloons and cover the china hutch and the china hutch with brown crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father vacantly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Roxanne Murdoch. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a pastry blender."
"Bingo," Doralene responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a smack. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."