After the Solar Eclipse last year, Annabel and I went online to look up when other cool celestial phenomena would be occurring. We were excited to discover that a total lunar eclipse would be visible from California on January 31. We marked my calendar with big bright letters: LUNAR ECLIPSE TODAY!

Last week, Annie said, “Mom, if the Earth is totally blocking the sun’s light, how will we even SEE the moon? Won’t it be too dark to see?” I was like, “Uhhhhh…” So, to make this into a “learning opportunity,” (that’s what I’m supposed to do as a parent, right?), I did some research into the eclipse. That’s when I saw that this wasn’t just a regular, boring lunar eclipse. No, this was a Super Moon! And a Blue Moon! And a blood moon! So many kinds of moons, all in one tasty package.

After a lot of questions (“Why is it super? Why is it blue? Wait, if it’s blue how can it be red?”) and a lot of Googling, Annie and I basically became moon experts. Pretty sure we could be astronauts now. That’s how it works, right?

Anyway, fast-forward to last night. I was set to meet a friend for dinner, but before I left, Annie and I went outside to get a look at the moon. It definitely was “super,” lighting up the sky. This picture doesn’t do it justice.

We couldn’t wait to see it turn red. I told Annie that we might not have moon pies for this eclipse, but we could have hot chocolate.

After a fantastic dinner with my friend Maya, I came home to a sleeping house. I was pretty beat, so after kissing my little sleepers, I went to bed – but not before I set my alarm for 4 am.

OR SO I THOUGHT. You guys. I set the alarm for 4 PM.

I woke up at 6:30, looked out the window, and saw that it was starting to get light outside. After yelling a bunch of bad words at my phone (because it was obviously my phone’s fault), I ran down the hallway to Annabel’s room. She’d also just woken up. We ran outside and…nothing. The eclipse was over. The moon wasn’t even visible in the sky anymore.

I was SO bummed. There hadn’t been an eclipse like this in 150 years, and we’d missed it. Mom Fail. Person Fail. FAIL.

I looked at Annie and apologized profusely. “That’s okay, Mom! We just have to make sure we see the next one!”

I was like, wait…why aren’t you mad? You’re an irrational child who didn’t get enough sleep, you’re supposed to be angry, stop confusing me.

“But…we’re still gonna have hot chocolate, right?”

We learned a valuable lesson today: Always double-check your alarms, and chocolate fixes everything.