Snowy birthday party

We'd planned to have a few of James's friends over for cupcakes on Saturday, a day for which a "dusting" of snow was forecast. Imagine our surprise when we woke up on Saturday morning to an unexpectedly large snowstorm and a phone message saying that two of our guests had been felled by a stomach bug.

Yikes, we're going to have one kid at this party, I thought as I finished setting up the snack table. James and Dave went out to get the pizza (the pizza place refused to deliver in the snow) and took an hour to do the ten-minute drive because various neighbors' cars kept spinning out in front of them.

I called our across-the-street neighbors. "Listen, I think you and Peter are going to be the only guests at the party, so I wanted to tell you that we're not going to be starting on time because the birthday boy is stuck at the pizza place."

If you're ever in a pinch like this, I highly recommend having Tom and Sandy as neighbors. They arrived shortly after James and the pizza did, with all four of their boys in tow. A couple of our other guests also ventured out into the snow, so we -- luckily! -- ended up having a full house.

I need not have feared a lame birthday party. It was excellent chaos. We made hot chocolate with marshmallows and turned it into a snow party. The boys piled onto our train-shaped riding toys and staged catastrophic railway accidents. James was beside himself with joy.