The concept of a birthday party, to me, seems pretty simple. Get a bunch of kids together, provide games/activities (a park or a pool seems pretty perfect to me), have some food and cake, and be done with it.

Not anymore. I'm living in a dreamworld if I think that the party for my soon-to-be six year old can be that simple.

Phoebe has attended five or six birthday parties for classmates and old friends this year, and each one seems to be more elaborate than the last. There was the one with the bounce house. Then there was the one with the bounce house AND the magician AND the face painting princess. Next came the one at the bounce house party-place, for lack of a better term (FULL of bounce houses). Then came the nail salon. Finally, most recently, at Pebble Beach's Equestrian Center. Yes, THE Pebble Beach, of golf-course fame, along Monterey Peninsula's 17 mile drive. A pony party, how can I live up to this?!?

I can't. I just can't.

Gotta love Phoebe, though, on the way home she says "Mommy, I want a Cabbage Patch Party in the park". Ahhhhhh, thank goodness!