So, Lily’s birthday is February 2; right in the thick of winter. Usually, here in Halifax, not a big deal. Living on the coast we don’t often get big snow storms, and when we do they are promptly followed by enough rain to wash it all away. February 2, 2013 was on a Saturday, which is birthday party day fro most families – but not ours. I teach dance on Saturday afternoons so we couldn’t have her party on the 2nd. Instead, we planned her party for the 3rd, the Sunday. This seemed like it would be a great idea anyway because then her older cousins who could have been invited to other birthday parties on the same weekend would likely still be able to go.
So, everything was great, I had purchased treat bags for all the children who might attend, I had a cake on order to be made, I had decorations and a special ‘1’ candle. My husband and his mother went shopping on the 2nd for fruit, veggies, drinks and other snacks. We were all set! Then the snow started. We were reluctant to cancel or postpone because we had everything prepared and my mother-in-law had come to visit for Lily’s birthday, it would be a shame for her to have to miss Lily’s first birthday party. However, we live pretty far out of the city and our roads are some of the last to get plowed. When the snow didn’t stop before noon we decided that it would be safer for everyone if we postponed the party – February 10, 2013 was the new date. I received an email from the person who was making Lily’s cake and by some miracle, she had broken the cake and offered to make a new one for another date – I asked her if she could try again for the following Sunday, and she agreed.
A lot of the drinks and snacks were still good from the weekend prior. This meant only a small amount of food would need to be purchased for this party. We had an appointment to have our photos taken in the morning on the 10th, so we had planned to stop on the way home to purchase any drinks and snacks that were now needed. Enter Winter Storm ‘Nemo’. The forecast was grim, upwards of 40 centimetres was forecast to fall beginning on Saturday and ending sometime on Sunday. I kept my hopes up as long as I could. After Lily went to bed on Saturday I ran around the house trying to make it clean enough for company and my husband went outside to shovel the driveway. In the morning, the plan was, try to go to pictures, if we make it the party is on, if we don’t, no party. We got up in the morning and looked out the window, the driveway was covered again and the road did not look nice at all, it was still snowing and the wind was blowing the snow making it hard to see and hard to clear the snow. We decided it would be safest to stay home; no party this week either. I went to my email to see what I could do about getting the cake – there was another email, she hadn’t been able to pick up the cake pan, did we want to have the cake on Monday or did we want to save it for yet another date? We told her not to worry about the cake and we would try again another time.
So now, when can we have the party? February 17 was out because my husband was going to be out of town for the weekend and we had a family party to go to; February 24 we had already agreed to go to another party for a friend’s new baby; March 3 is out because I had already agreed to substitute for some dance classes that day. Now we are looking more than a month after her actual birthday, this just seems silly! I don’t want to give up on her party though, she is my first baby and her first birthday is a big deal to me! She doesn’t understand and is not disappointed that she has not had a party, but I am a little disappointed. So, what to do? Should we go ahead and try March 10 even though it is so far after her birthday AND the weather could cancel it again, or do we do something crazy? We do something crazy, of course! Why have a 13 month birthday party when we can look even further forward, to the summer when the weather is not as likely to be so bad. So, for our baby girl’s first “birthday party” we will be having an 18 month party in August instead. In day care, for a child to move from a baby classroom to a toddler classroom, they must be 18 months old, so instead of a “birthday party” we are having a “toddler party.” This solution will not work in the future, I know, we will likely have a disappointed little girl every now and then, but at least she will still get to have a party this year!