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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Time for a chat with your sister

Diane Verhoeven King Features Syndicate

Dear Diane: Last week, my son “Tyler” celebrated his fifth birthday. We invited all of his friends and classmates from school, plus aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. It was a huge to-do.

Because of the large guest list, I knew that we would need a lot more cake than I could bake in my oven at home. So, I called my sister “Lily” (Tyler’s aunt) and asked her to pick up a few sheet cakes from the local supermarket that I had ordered and paid for in advance.

I made Tyler a homemade cake — the “official” birthday cake — and the sheet cakes would be used to feed all the guests. That was the plan.

Diane, you will not guess what happened next.

The party began and Lily and her husband showed up with two huge sheet cakes, but they were NOT the cakes I ordered. They went ahead and got cakes that were far more expensive and had action figures on top.

She then called the children to the table, set the cakes in front of Tyler, lit the candles and had everyone sing “Happy Birthday”!!

Tyler was supposed to blow out the candles of my cake. I’m his mother, and I made the thing from scratch!

I am so angry at my sister for doing this. I don’t know what to do about it. Any suggestions?

— Upstaged In Utica

Dear Upstaged: There’s not much you can do now that the damage is done. It’s horrible that your sister would demean your efforts in front of your son. Definitely have a talk with her about it and tell her that she was out of line.

The next thing to do is not invite her to any more birthday parties. Or if you do, search her for cake before she comes in the house.