Happy Birthday?

Charlie and I went to a birthday party in Tulsa today. It was my long time friend's daughter who had turned 7. I was dreading the drive but I really wanted to see everyone. The last time I saw them was about 6 months ago. Anyhow, she had her daughter's party in a gymnasium at the middle school there. Sound fun so far? The gym has every gymnastic equipment known to man in there. Of course the little girl was so...excited about this party because she just loves tumbling. There were about 15 little kids there just running, jumping, swinging and tumbling everywhere you looked. Still sound fun?? Charlie was having a blast. He'd jump in the little pits filled with foam squares and just thought that was the best thing ever invented. Of course I was on the edge the whole time because there were things in there that were not safe for the children OR parents. So...the party is moving along and it's time to go and have pizza. Everyone loves pizza , right. Well little did we know that it was just a little break from the events that happen next. After pizza, all the kids go back in to the gym to play. All of the sudden we here this high pitch screech...one of the little girls fell off one of the balance beams and got a really bad beam burn down the side of her thigh and calf. All of the grown ups were all freaking out because we had no clue what had happened. We didn't know if she broke something or what. All we knew at the time was that she couldn't move her leg. Then as we got closer to help her, we saw the aftermath. Her mother ran and got an ice pack for her and placed it on her burns...poor little girl. I had no idea that such things could happen. At that time I had been informed that one of the ladies that was assisting the party hurt her neck and back. I'm thinking to myself...I knew from the minute I walked into this gym someone was going to get hurt. I didn't think it was going to be more than one. So, as the little girl is getting some TLC I'm watching my friend move Charlie away from a certain area of the gym and then she goes to fold down this platform so the kids wouldn't climb up on it. As she is trying to figure how it folds down, the platform crumbles on her and her right index finger gets caught in the hinge. OUCH!! I watch her pull her hand away from the platform and look down at her hand and watch her face turn white as a ghost. She starts running down towards us and yells at her husband, "we need to go, my finger is coming off!" Still want to have your child's birthday at a gymnatic gymnasium people? So, she and her husband wisk off to the hospital and all the kids are still at a loss of what is going on. We decided to finish the party up for her because there was still about 30 or so minutes left. So we did the birthday cookie, sang to her, opened the presents and I took lots of pictures for them. We cleaned up everything and made sure that the kids were all picked up. I went to my friends house afterwards to help the grandmother get all the kids situated. I stayed about an hour and then headed out. I later received a phone call from my friend and found out that she broke her finger and the tip was torn off but hanging by the ligament. The ER couldn't do anything but stitch it back on with 8 stitches and that she would have to see an orthopedic surgeon for the fractures and a plastic surgeon to see if the tip is salvagable. I thought 07/07/07 was suppose to be a lucky day. I guess God wanted me to go to Tulsa today for this reason. She apparently needed all the help that she could get. The thing that really got me was that most of the parents just left their kid there. Had we had more eyes on the kids I believe that this all could have been avoided. So Happy Birthday?? Well...the little girl did have a good birthday but this will definately be a birthday that my friend will never forget!!