“I don’t want any of those princesses. I don’t even like princesses,” Lucy says, her eyes brimming with tears.
‘Since when?’ I think, but now is not the time to ask.
We are trying to avoid an epic meltdown 20 minutes before Lucy and Sam’s 6th birthday party. On our way to the community centre, where we’re having the party, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up the cakes.
Sam’s Transformer cake looked just like the picture: black icing, red piping and two Transformers figurines standing on the cake.
Lucy’s Tinker Bell and Periwinkle cake, however, was not up to standard. The cake itself looked great: half of it was bright green with leaves and flowers, representing Tinker Bell’s home in Pixie Hollow. The other half was blue and white, the perfect example of Periwinkle’s Winter Woods icy home. But an integral part of the cake was missing: Tinker Bell and Periwinkle themselves. The bakery could not find the figurines.
Tink and Peri were M.I.A.
Desperately seeking Tink and Peri.
Tinker Bell & Periwinkle
What’s the big deal, you ask? Throw on a Cinderella figurine, or Ariel or Elsa or Anna. Everyone loves Anna and Elsa, right?
Well, not this little girl. At least, not today. Earlier in the week we had done a special trip to the bakery so Lucy and Sam could pick out exactly what they wanted for their birthday cakes. Lucy was set on Tinker Bell and Periwinkle and nothing but Tinker Bell and Periwinkle was going to do.
I looked at my sad little girl and asked, “What about Ariel? You like Ariel.”
Lucy shook her head. She took a deep breath and as her shoulders inched up towards her ears, I knew we were seconds away from the dam bursting… The point of no return. “I don’t like her or any of the other princesses. I want Tinker Bell and Periwinkle.”
As much as I wanted to say “It’s just a cake. It doesn’t matter,” I had to remember, it does matter… It matters to her. To this little girl, to my little girl, to the birthday girl, all that mattered in the world right now was getting the right cake for her birthday.
One happy 6 year old
Lucy loves being in charge. She likes control. She likes making decisions. She loved that she had full control of her cake; whatever she wanted, she could get. And now, from her point of view, we were ripping that control away.
As the tears threatened to fall, Mark asked if the bakery could call around to another store to see if they had the figurines.
Jackpot! One store, 5 kilometres away, had them.
With mere minutes before the party started, Mark dropped Lucy, Sam and me off at the community centre and raced to the other bakery to save the day.
I’m happy to say that tears were avoided and Lucy, along with Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, had a fabulous birthday party.
