Buying my children's happiness

What a weekend. We geared up on Saturday morning to attend the 4th birthday party of our neighbor Nikolas.  We got the invitation over a month ago.  I committed it to memory and threw away the invite so our house was "stage-worthy".  After all, it would be hard to forget this little guy's party!!

His party was at Pump It Up, the local bouncehouse (which we all know is my favorite place!).  We sat around drinking coffee lazily all morning.  The party wasn't until 12:30 so we had time to kill.  We told the kids that we were going to the bouncehouse for a birthday party and they were so excited.  They LOVE it there!  We left early to make a quick stop to pick up Nikolas' birthday present - a Batman action figure.  We had to take a long detour due to a closed road.  But no worries.  We were still only 5 minutes late.  We walked in the door and were escorted back to the party.  As we walked in, the entire party was taking a group photo.  I started to get that feeling in the pit of my stomach.  The feeling that something was terribly wrong here... It was.  

The party started at 11:30 am.  We were over an hour late.  I just walked my 2 children into a bounce house just as the entire group was lining up at the door to exit.

All the blood drained from my face and my nose went numb.  I was dizzy.  Confused.  And too scared to look down at my children who were looking up at me wondering when they could go jump.It was the worst moment ever.  I almost started crying I was so disappointed for my kids.  I tried to get them excited about getting in line for cake, but my kids aren't dummies.  Leo was devastated.  

The next hour was full of tears, cake, confusion and sadness.  I barely recovered.  Some of it was Leo too.

On the way home after an hour of torture, I asked Jason if we could stop and pick up the toy that we bought for Nikolas as a consolation prize for Leo.  Before I told him about the toy, I asked him if he forgave me for making such a huge mistake, he said no.  We held onto the Batman until he decided he could forgive me.  When he finally said "I forgive you Mom", we pulled out the Batman and his eyes lit up.

He didn't completely forget the huge disappointment of the day. But he did assure me at bedtime that he was very happy.  He understood that we were trying to buy his happiness.  And it was worth all thirteen dollars.  I would have paid more too if it meant he would be happy again.

Bedtime happiness montage brought to you by Batman

(I know it doesn't look 4T. But that shirt claims to be a 4T. And so it goes back in the drawer every time.)

*Sidenote: There were a lot of apostrophe's in this post.  None of which are properly placed.  I will never understand the apostrophe.  Were any of them right????