Up in smoke!

We recently celebrated my dad's 50th birthday! Now the Shipman girls like to make everyone feel very special on their birthday. I think I got covered in silly string every year until I moved out...the first time. Brooke was so kind as to get me black balloons for my 30th (just wait!) We threw mom a big surprise party for her 40th, grim reaper and all! So what do you think we congered up for my dad's 50th? We spent many hours trying to decide what to do. This must be good right? Well it was a big surprise, we decided to.....just be nice. I know you're shocked! We made T-bones, dad's favorite potato salad, fresh vegetables from mom's garden and last but not least, I decided to make dad's favorite cake, red velvet. Has anyone ever made one of these wonderful cakes? If so, you will know this is not the easiest cake to make. Lot's of time and lots of food coloring! Anyway, after a very stressful preparation I finished the cakes and set them on the stove to cool. I covered them with paper towels and then decided to boil the eggs for the potato salad. I noticed I had turned on the wrong burner about the time the paper towel caught on fire! It was too late to save one of my precious red velvet cakes! I'm so glad Kevin was there and able to put the fire out without much damage (the counter top got a little burned, I hate them anyway!) There were some tears! Not the first of the cooking disasters accompanying dad's birthday, anyone remember the meatloaf? The remaining cake was delicious and we had a great time at dad's party. He was pleasantly surprised he only ended up with some black balloons and an "over the hill" candle on his cake. Watch out dad, there's always next year!