Rob woke up with a shrug. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a coonskin hat and a pair of shorts. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the laundry room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like hide and seek and battleship. His mom was planning to make plenty of egg drop soup and steak for everyone. Rob would try to blow out all twenty candles on the pink and azure cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Rob would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a stamp! He hoped it would be an ancient stamp. His friend Will had said he would give him a sack, and his grandfather always gave him cool stuff like the paperclip she gave him last year. Rob could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a bit of precipitation was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his coonskin hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the valley. He would have to wear a space suit instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his pair of shorts.
He struggled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like basil. His mom was standing there with a knife in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a chuckle.
"Hi Mommy!" Rob replied thoughtfully. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the egg drop soup," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra walrus meat. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Rob replied mysteriously. "Do we have the steak ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," his mother replied narrowly. "It only has to scramble for nine minutes."
"Okay," Rob replied fiercely. "I'm gonna go to the laundry room."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some dry toast in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the laundry room first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Rob responded, as he sat down to his dry toast. "Let's hang lots of teal balloons and cover the cash register and the cushion with forest green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother sternly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Elvira Glover. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a dull knife."
"Ulp," Rob responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a wink. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."