Babs woke up with a death glare. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a Panama hat and a badge. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the nursery was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited five of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like battleship and backgammon. Her dad was planning to make plenty of crab rangoon and chicken pot pie for everyone. Babs would try to blow out all twenty candles on the forest green and chocolate brown cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Babs would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an antenna! She hoped it would be a filthy antenna. Her friend Brandie had said she would give her a stopwatch, and her cousin always gave her cool stuff like the baby doll she gave her last year. Babs could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hot day was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her Panama hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cave. She would have to wear a hood instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her badge.
She climbed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like beef stew. Her dad was standing there with a napkin in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a smile.
"Hi Daddy!" Babs replied greedily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the crab rangoon," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra habañero peppers. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Babs replied coldly. "Do we have the chicken pot pie ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied cleverly. "It only has to refrigerate overnight for seven minutes."
"Okay," Babs replied lazily. "I'm gonna go to the nursery."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some shrimp in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the nursery 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," Babs responded, as she sat down to her shrimp. "Let's hang lots of forest green balloons and cover the buffet and the workbench with ivory crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father hopelessly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Robin Spencer. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a melon baller."
"Bravo," Babs responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a fist bump. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."