Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Yesterday was a bittersweet day. For months, I'd been planning to have Jadzia's birthday party while Robby was home on R&R and I wanted it as close the September 1st as I could since that was only a month early. For months she wanted a Wizard of Oz party so I bought all the stuff for it and when we knew Robby's leave dates we planned it for this past weekend. Since it was really only us and our neighbor's family some things got left down to the last minute. But regardless, there was going to be a party. After taking Bluto to the vet Saturday and still feeling confident that he would recover and be a happy, bounding puppy soon, I started making Jadzia's cake. I had a great mental image of a cake in my head and I so hoped I could pull it off.

Following the directions from here, I set about producing a rainbow cake. I got the "bones" (i.e. the cake itself sans frosting) done Saturday night and put it in the fridge over night (if I learned anything from Belle and Cinderella, I learned that the harder a cake gets from being cool, the easier it is to ice properly.

Sunday morning, Bluto still wasn't well but I went ahead with the decorating of the cake as the party was set for that afternoon at 4PM. It didn't all go exactly according to plan but it came out great in my opinion. The lollipops I'd ordered mostly as party favors/decor turned out the go well with the cake.



I finished the cake and was thrilled with the outcome. Jadzia had seen me decorating it and kept telling me how beautiful it was as she danced around in her Ruby Slippers (yes she put them on as soon as she realized it was party day).

It wasn't long after that that I discovered Bluto had passed. We'd been keeping him in the laundry room where it was quiet and dark per the vet's recommendations and checking on him every hour or so to sit with him, pet him, give him some water, etc. I came out sobbing and Inara immediately came to hug me and Jadzia asked me what was wrong. We had to explain a few times to her that Bluto wasn't coming back as she kept saying "it's okay, he'll be back soon" trying to comfort me. I'm still not completely sure she understands but I've gotten off track a bit. We decided to proceed with the party since Jadzia was excited and it was planned. Robby called the vet (who'd given us his cell phone for the weekend and agreed to meet Robby at the office even though it was a Sunday) and took Bluto up there. I got the kids watching something or other and then cried a lot.

I stalled decorating for awhile but finally starting putting up some balloons and streamers and generally preparing for a 5 year old birthday party. It was small but it was fun. Jadzia opened presents (and made out like a bandit due to mommy's amazon addiction) and then it was time for cake.


Singing happy birthday, see Miss Dorothy.


You saw the outside of the finished product - time for the INSIDE.

The party did a great job of distracting the kids (and Robby and I a little) from Bluto's passing and Jadzia had a good time. After it was over she spent the rest of the night making sushi, stir fry and cookies with her array of Melissa and Doug wooden food I ordered for her.