Mom/Mummy lay back down and
drifted off to sleep again.
“Acorn Lake, Alice, Artichoke, Bald
Eagle Lake . . . ,” Judy murmured.
Click-click, click-click, click-click-click.
“Are the crickets back?” Mom
asked, opening her eyes. “Why do
I feel like I’m counting lakes in my
sleep?”
55
“Oops, sorry,” said Judy. “We’re
using your Dynamo Office Buddy
2000 to label the lakes in Minnesota.”
“Dynamo,” said Mom. She pulled
the sleeping bag up over her ears.
Chirr-up. Chirr-up. Ribbet.
“Big McDonald, Big Rice, Button
Box . . . ” Stink mumbled as he glued.
Click-click-click.
EEE-EEE-EEE! EEE-EEE-EEE!
Mom bolted upright. “Fire! Call
nine-one-one!”
EEE-EEE-EEE!
57
All at once, the screeching stopped.
Dad came hurrying out of the
kitchen. “A million sorries. I was
baking your cake and set off the
smoke alarm,” he said. “How was
your nap?”
“Eventful,” said Mom. “I think I’ve
had enough nap for one day.”
58
A half hour later, Dad called,
“Carrot-cake time!” Everybody
crowded around the dining-room
table and stared.
“Holy guacamole!” said Judy.
“Why is it . . . pukey green?” Stink
asked.
“Avocado,” said Dad. “I mashed
some into the icing. I thought it
would go well with the carrots.”
Judy gulped. Stink gagged.
Dad turned out the lights and lit
the candles.
“Make a wish!” Judy called.
Mom squeezed her eyes shut.
Mom made a wish. Mom blew out
the candles.
60
Dad cut the cake. The inside of the
cake did not look very carroty.
“Um, Dad, why is the carrot cake
white?” Judy couldn’t help asking.
“I thought it was strange, too,” said
Dad. “When I took the carrots out of
the fridge, they seemed awfully pale
to me.”
Mom started to laugh.
61
“What’s so funny?” asked Dad.
“Those weren’t carrots,” said Mom.
“We’re all out of carrots. Those were
parsnips.”
Dad’s face went as white as the
cake. “I made you parsnip cake?”
62
It was no use. Mom’s birthday was
jinxed. Judy scribbled out an IOU
and handed it to her mother. “Mom,
we owe you one un-jinxed birthday.
Can we do over Mom’s birthday
tomorrow, Dad?”
63
“Please, no!” said Mom. “I
mean — one birthday is enough to
last me a whole year.”
“I bet I know what you wished
when you blew out the candles,” said
Judy. “I bet you wished that your
birthday was not jinxed.”
“My birthday was not jinxed,” said
Mom.
64
“But you didn’t get to eat dead fish
like you wanted,” said Stink.
“No, but I did get to eat all my
vegetables for the day in one slice of
birthday cake.”
“And you didn’t get to go on a
nature walk or see a snowy owl,” said
Judy.
“I didn’t need to,” said Mom. “I
had a cricket-and-frog symphony in
my very own living room.”
“You couldn’t even take a nap with
all the noise,” said Judy.
“Noise is the sound of family,” said
Mom. “And the best birthdays are full
of noise.”
Judy, Stink, Mom, and Dad piled
onto the couch in one big snuggle.
“Birthday hug!” called Judy.
66
And the hug did not look one bit
like a monkey.
Mom wrapped the sleeping bag
around them.
Chirr-up! Chirr-up! Ribbet!