Melanie turned four a week ago and all she wanted for her birthday was a party at one of those kid places where it's "all inclusive" and they run the whole party for you, stress free (sounds too good to be true, huh???? just wait) and for her gift, a fish. I worked on the party first. I set aside a Saturday morning to call the place and talk with them about the details and then decided to make her invitations online so I could crop a picture of her on it. Booking the place and setting the details was a piece of cake. Life was good. Then came the invites. Melanie could not decide on a theme and wanted two different ones actually (super heroes where I could put her in as Super Woman for the boys, and Ariel the Little Mermaid for the girls). I spent more time then I should have explaining why she could only have one theme, sometimes "because I said so" really is the right answer. Needless to say I could not find either which began a two hour session of me creating invites in a variety of characters I thought she might like and her not liking any of them. At that point I was no longer enjoying myself so I told her I would just make whatever I wanted which is what I did. I found a website with cute little girlie backgrounds ( no characters attached) and cropped her picture onto it. I filled in all the details, showed it to her and her answer was............."Perfect momma, why didn't you make it that way to start?" Needless to say I decided it was nap time then. What I did not anticipate was all the "little" things you will do to prepare for a birthday: cake, balloons, goodie bags, extra food and drinks, extra socks for the bounce structures, etc. I took endless trips to stores for just one more thing. Did I mention, she settled on Tinker Bell as a theme and requested I redo her invites in Tinker Bell, one look at my face when she asked and then said, "It's okay momma, I like them the other way too."
Reserved party place where kiddos can jump and go crazy = $289, Goodie bags and balloon order = $82.00, Sheet cake that was way too big that the bakery lady talked me into = $40.00, Extra food and drinks = $45.00, The fun the kids had and the pure joy on my daughters face to spend her special day with her friends = PRICELESS! What my husband gave since I didn't warn him about the bill ahead of time = FORGIVENESS! ;-) It was a wonderful day, would not have changed it for the world.
So the party was over and it was time to focus on Melanie's second request, a fish. How hard can that be??? We went to the pet store and headed straight for the aquariums to pick one out. They had many different sizes and designs priced anywhere from $20.00 to thousands of dollars. Not sure what we wanted we headed to the fish area to pick out some fish. Melanie looked them all over and chose some fan tailed goldfish so I called the lady over and she asked me how big my tank was and I informed her we didn't have one. Thus started an education I never asked for. She responded, "Oh you won't be taking those fish home today lady." Thus began the lecture on how we would have to take the tank home, set it up, and allow it to run for 24 hours before we could put fish in it. That was 20 minutes of my life I will never get back. I then proceeded to get the "pretty stuff" to decorate the inside. An older lady was parked right in front of the fake plant stuff. At first I waited thinking, "How long can this take?" After about 10 minutes I decided to collect everything else I needed and come back. Ten minutes later I returned and she was still there literally looking back and forth between two fake looking plants that looked almost identical both costing $8.99. Fearing that the thoughts in my head may slip out of my mouth at any moment I decided we didn't need fake looking plants and we proceeded to the register. When the lady told me it would cost $91.00 I almost choked. As I paid, she asked Melanie what type of fish she was getting and Melanie told her and her response was "Ewww, they can be really dirty!" Nice sales technique and nice way to crush the dreams of a four year old who thinks that goldfish are awesome. We left, we went home, and we set up our new "environment". Melanie was soooooooo excited, Charles couldn't believe it was costing us $100 and I just wondered what happened to the day when you could get a goldfish in a bag, a glass bowl ON THE SAME DAY, spend $10 and have your first pet. Ahhhhh, those were the days. I took my Geritol and went to bed. ;-)
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| Melanie and her new fish. You try to say no to that face. ;-) |
The next day we went to buy the fish waiting precisely 24 hours and guess what.....the pet store was closed. That should have been a sign but nooooooooooo I used my smart phone and found one that was open and off we went to buy the fish of my little girls' dreams if it killed me. We bought our fish and got them home and introduced them to their new home. Melanie loved them instantly. She has responsibly fed them every day for the past week and checks on them day and night. Exactly one week later and the tank is leaking near the filter and one little guy (Dory) is not looking so good. I suspect we will have a flushing ceremony by weeks end. As I tell people this story they all say "Oh yeah......" and some story follows about goldfish not being great fish to get. Where was this helpful advice weeks ago when I thought this was the best idea ever? I guess we will wait and see. Pray for little Nemo and Dory. Pray for Mel when their time does come. Pray that the new fish that I am sure we will get will like it's new "environment" more than these seem to. I will pray for all you new parents out there for you too will have at least one birthday party that you will wonder what you were thinking when you add up the money and time you spent on it and that first pet that you weren't nearly as prepared for as you thought you were. Ahhhh, the blessings of parenthood.
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