Liz woke up with a power fist. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a leotard and a bandana. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the game room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-nine of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like volleyball and duck duck goose. Her mom was planning to make plenty of chocolate-covered ants and succotash for everyone. Liz would try to blow out all fourteen candles on the forest green and pink cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Liz would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a clarinet! She hoped it would be a hollow clarinet. Her friend Rover had said he would give her a ruler, and her grandfather always gave her cool stuff like the bagpipe she gave her last year. Liz could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her leotard. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the buffalo wallow. She would have to wear a pair of bell-bottoms instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bandana.
She darted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pickles. Her mom was standing there with a meat tenderizer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a pout.
"Hi Mommy!" Liz replied despondently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the chocolate-covered ants," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra mint leaves. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Liz replied boldly. "Do we have the succotash ready?"
"I'm going to wait until seven o'clock to start that," her mother replied sweetly. "It only has to age for forty-eight minutes."
"Okay," Liz replied mysteriously. "I'm gonna go to the game room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some cookies in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the game room first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Liz responded, as she sat down to her cookies. "Let's hang lots of periwinkle balloons and cover the stairway and the bathtub with scarlet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother fondly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Dusty Bruno. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a cookie cutter."
"Holy buckets," Liz responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a belch. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."