Not my finest parental moment

Today was a busy day. Addysen had a volleyball tournament. Cannon had a scout campout. Brynnley had a Halloween/Birthday party. Greg and Addysen had a youth Fall Festival. I had to get groceries.
It was a busy day.
So busy, in fact, that I did something I swore I would never do. I completely forgot about one of my children.
Brynnley. Yep -- completely.
I left her at the birthday party.
I'm not really sure what I was thinking. (Or perhaps, I simply wasn't thinking.) I grabbed a few groceries after dropping her off at the party, came home, made dinner and got the girls in the bathtub. I cleaned up the kitchen and family room (how can it get so messy when we aren't even home most of the day?) and started editing some pictures. We had family prayer (and, it should be noted that in that family prayer, Kenzie even prayed that Dad, Addysen and Brynnley would get home safely) and started reading Kenzie's library book.
Just as we were about to join Barbie in her discovery of the lost treasure, I suddenly remembered my middle child. I threw the book down with an exclamation of, "Oh! I forgot about Brynnley."
I promptly told Kenzie to head to bed and picked up Cambrie to start our nightly song ritual.
"You are my baby, my little baby..." was quickly interrupted with, "Don't sing it faster." I looked at my watch and realized that the party had ended 45 minutes prior to me even remembering there was a party. You can bet that I did "sing it faster."
Oh. My.
I used to wonder how it could happen that people would stumble over their kids names. I also used to get annoyed by that.
I don't anymore.
I used to wonder how people could simply forget that they needed to pick up a child.
I don't anymore.
Thankfully, the party wasn't too far from our house and as I sheepishly showed up at the wrong door (turns out, they live in a duplex and party-people's house is around back...sigh....) I continually apologized. Then I asked at what point they would have called me if I hadn't shown up.
Brynnley's response was simple: "I hoped I was spending the night."
And there you go.
Not my finest parental moment.
It was a first...forgetting a child. (I've had plenty of not-fine parental moments.)
Unfortunately, it probably won't be a last.