"Oh, no!" cried Barney

My son turned 4 last week. The weekend before I set out on a mission and went to multiple yard sales to find a working Buzz Lightyear. There was no success for that mission, but I did find some other bargains, including a Wilton Barney cake pan for $0.50. WOO HOO!! My son is an avid Barney the Dinosaur fan. In fact, he has a Barney costume I got at the SalVo for $2.00 2 years ago that he still regularly dresses up in. That was the best 2 bucks spent-- EVER!
Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until the day of his birthday to bake and decorate the Barney cake. I knew better, but my sister-in-law was visiting for the week, and we got busy with other fun outings. I had originally planned on baking the cake Tuesday, applying the crumb coating of icing (base coating) on Wednesday, and then decorating with the wonderful star tip on Wednesday night and Thursday. I spent all day Thursday with the cake version of Barney. It was soooo worth it, too! When the last icing star was applied, my little boy squealed with delight! Ever so carefully I transported my monkeys, Barney the Cake, and party supplies and gifts to Burger King. I ordered my monkeys some food, and I set to work getting the party table presentable. The simpler, the better, I say. Plastic table cloth in butter yellow, paper plates, napkins, and plastic forks in Barney purple, party hats and blowers in shimmery green, and gifts. Viola. Done. BK no longer allows balloons in the play area, so we had no balloons.
Family and friends arrived. Children played in the play gym. (My eldest reported an accident to the workers; not her accident, but a stumbled upon puddle. eeewwww) Presents were opened with eager anticipation and delight. The Birthday song was sang, candles were huffed and puffed out, and we feasted on the Barney cake. At the first knife cut of the cake, our little 2 year old friend, Ethan, narrated, "Oh, no! cried Barney". I busted a gut laughing so hard! And then when everyone had their fill of cake (we had no ice cream because my son is allergic to milk), my son wanted to look at the cake again. 4 year old minds amaze me. He knew that we had made a Barney birthday cake. He knew we brought it to BK with us. He saw the candles in front of him on the cake. He knew after the candles were blown out and the song had been sung I whisked the cake away so we could serve it. He ate a piece of the cake--the tail part he had special ordered! But he came over to see the cake again. For whatever reason he thought the cake would still be in tact. He saw the remaining 4 pieces and just stared and said, "Oh, no. How could you do this to me? How could you do this to Barney?" very very pitiful. He made me feel like I murdered Barney! He quickly got over the let down when he saw his new gifts again, and friends and cousins wanted to play again. Thank goodness!
I started cleaning up, and had the help of other attending adults. I saw my camera on the window ledge with some of the drinks. I made a mental note not to forget the camera. We had gotten a lot of great pictures that I was hoping we'd get to cherish for life. ("we"-- I don't have a mouse in my pocket. My husband and my step-sister and I all took pictures with my camera) Finally it was time to leave. I remember having the camera in one hand and drinks in the other, and I walked over to the trash to pitch the drinks. I laughed in my mind "now don't throw away the camera with the drinks!" because that is something I would SO do. So, I don't think I actually did it. I don't think I threw it away. But I have no memory of the camera after that. I wheeled my stroller out to the car, I had the basket with party supplies and my box with the remainder of the cake as well. PePaw Truck (my dad) had taken all the gifts and my son to his truck to transport back to my house. Normally, upon arriving at my house, I would have gotten the camera out and dumped the pics on the computer. But because we had company and other plans, I didn't think about it. My mom had been out of town last week and didn't get to join in the festivities. She came over last night to give my son his present and to see us. So I went to find the camera so I could show her the pictures of the party and the awesome cake. I searched high and low. In the diaper bags and purse and under the seats in the car, in the trunk, in the gift bags that I've already emptied and put in my closet for future use. No Camera. I called Burger King to see if I left it there. They said no one had turned one in. So, I am bummed. I don't know what other pictures I had on the camera, other than a diaper making tutorial I was working on for a contest. That's another 5 hours down the drain. No camera. I have no way to show you how awesome the cake looked, or the delight on my son's face when he opened the Barney's Magic Banjo he has been wanting since September of last year, or the bunny ears my daughter put on my son's head in the group shot of the kids. Sad. It may turn up eventually. My house is a disaster zone again from all the in and out and running around and late nights and early mornings and blah blah blah of last week. Today I must tidy it up a bit. We have no more clean spoons or knives. And I think the only clean forks are the toddler sized airplane handled ones. hee hee So, maybe it will turn up today. If it does, I will do a happy dance. If not, I might shed a tear. At any rate, I am hoping for a quiet day.