Recently it was my son’s birthday.  He was turning twelve and my husband and I wanted to throw him a really great party.  Aidan is somewhat of a trend setter and always wants to have a party that nobody else in his class has had.  It used to make me really proud that I could pull off something truly new for him.  Aidan was the first in his grade to have a laser tag party.  I know, I know--a billion kids have laser tag parties every day, but in Aidan’s class, he was the first.  The first followed by about a half dozen or more that year alone.  He was the first to have a party at an indoor go-kart racing track, and the first to have a Game Coach party ( which involves a giant trailer with big screen tvs and every video game you can imagine coming to your house).  It does get harder every year though, to think of something that NOBODY else has done.

This year, I really had to put my thinking cap on.  What had he not already done, that nobody else had done either?  Sky High Sports, that’s what.  This is genius actually.  It’s a franchise (one of those, why didn’t I think of that firsts?) of warehouses that are basically wall to wall trampoline.  The walls themselves are trampolines.  Kids and adults bounce themselves silly and have a great time.  A great time that nobody in his grade had thought to have as of yet.  At least not for a birthday party.  I booked his party for a Sunday and sent out the invitations.  All but a few RSVP’d yes.

My husband offered to help out with party arrangements, so I put him in charge of figuring out how we were going to transport 30 twelve-year-olds from our home to Sky High, which is about 45 minutes away.  He contacted several party bus and limo services and found one that was only slightly less than leasing a bus for a month, and booked it.  Done.  All that was left to do was order cupcakes and buy favors and we were golden.

I'm gonna let you in on a secret about me.  Aidan is my 3rd child.  That's not the secret!  The secret is that I only seem like I come up with all the great party ideas first.  Don't forget that I have already been through all the birthday parties that my other two kids have been invited to over the years.  That’s right.  The cat’s out of the bag.  I cheat.  I steal the really great party ideas from other moms in my older kids’ grades.  A boy in Rory's class had a party at Sky High the month before Aidan's birthday, and it was a huge success.  This is just another benefit of having three kids close in age, stolen birthday parties.  Or as I like to call them, recycled.  Sounds less sneaky and a whole lot better for the environment, don’t you think?  Our oldest is in 11th grade.  She’s seen a lot of birthday party action over the years.  Now she’s driving and studying for her SATs.  In fact, she had a tutoring session scheduled for the weekend of Aidan’s party.  And good thing she did.  Here’s the part where I come back to how everything happens for a reason.

My husband mentioned that Kayla would be missing her tutoring session to attend her brother’s party.  Or else, maybe we should change the appointment.  I had just had my appendix out (never a dull moment) and so he had scheduled the tutor after the previous session.  Therefore, I had no idea what time or even what day the tutor was coming.  I looked in the calendar and lo and behold, she was down for Saturday.  Which was not a conflict at all since the party was Sunday. When I told my husband that, he said, “I know.  Saturday.  Same day as the party.”  Uh oh.

Time to start looking for that silver lining.  If I hadn’t had to have my appendix out, he wouldn’t have scheduled the tutoring session, and I wouldn’t have needed to check the calendar to find out when the tutor was coming.  If I hadn’t had to do that, we never would have realized that Kevin had been operating under the premise that the party was on Saturday.  We would never have caught the mistake in time to call the party bus people and change the reservation.  That bus would have shown up at our house a day early, quite possibly leaving us without transportation for the actual party day, and what was supposed to be the cutting edge, never been done before party (at least not that any of Aidan’s classmates knew) would have been a bust.  See?  Follow my glass half full, Polyanna-ish train of thought?  Basically I found a way to turn having to have an appendectomy into a good thing.

Now I wish I could end my story here, with good triumphing over evil, as all good stories end.  But, no.  Because even though we figured out the mix up in time to change the party bus reservation, we had no clue as to yet another unforseen turn of events.  Friday afternoon before the weekend of the party that would have had the entire 6th grade talking, I got a call from the school nurse.  Aidan had fallen and fractured his wrist.  So instead of a party Aidan got a cast.  And since he had a cast, Sky High Sports would not allow him to bounce.  So, since Aidan couldn’t bounce, we would have to postpone his party.  And the party bus.  Poor guy.  He cried all the way home from the orthopedic doctor’s office.  I tried to cheer him up with my, “Hey, everything for a reason,” speech.  But he just looked at me like I was nuts.

“Seriously mom?”  He asked.  “You are seriously going to try and tell me it was a good thing that I broke my wrist and had to cancel my party?”  My brain went into spin mode and I tried to figure out a plausible scenario in which breaking his wrist could be a plus.  “Maybe the day that you end up having the party, Sky High will be less crowded and you’ll have the run of the place,”  I said hopefully.  No sale.  “Maybe if you hadn’t broken your wrist, and we’d had the party as planned, something crazy would have happened, like maybe someone would have bounced right into one of your guests.  A big giant kid maybe.  Someone who could have really caused some damage.  But since we won’t be there on that day, that won’t happen.  See?”  He didn’t see.

I guess sometimes there’s just no way to make lemonade when life gives you lemons.  Sometimes you just have to say, “Yep.  That sucks.  Those sure are lemons alright.”  And let the tears fall.  Sometimes it’s easy to see the silver lining in a situation.  And sometimes, luckily only sometimes, life isn’t fair.  We will have the party one month to the day after Aidan’s real birthday.  So far all the guests say they will still be able to come.  Aidan had a rough evening that Friday before his would-have-been birthday party weekend.  But, I know that just as sure as his wrist will heal, his dashed hopes will, too.  He’s already looking forward to his party (again).  So even though that glass half full, got dumped out temporarily, it’s half full once more.  And he did that all by himself, no Mom-spin required.  Hey, you know what?  I think I may have just found that silver lining.