One Last Post About the Birthday

On Sunday morning our house was putting on a piece of performance art, perhaps as a tribute to the families of Katrina or perhaps as a foreshadowing of the hurricane season to come. Normally, if the house looked like that and I was hosting a birthday party later in the afternoon, I would be: 1) rather grumpy; 2) rather stressed out; and 3) rather inclined to start drinking at an hour that some people might characterize as "daybreak." Instead, I was lying on my living room floor in the midst of the mess, watching my little nephew tear up tissues and throw little Blue's Clues figures around the room.

How could I be so calm?

Let me tell you friends: We held the final celebration of Aislinn's birthday at the local McDonalds which guaranteed me happy meals, paper hats, place mats, cake and ice cream, toys, goodie bags, and an hour and a half to ourselves in the play area. The price of this extravaganza? $50 for 10 kids, $6 for each additional kid. I never attended a McDonald's birthday myself, but from all the screeching that occurred while I was there, I gather that it is rather fun for the guests.

My only complaint? What the McDonald's people call goodie bags I would actually refer to as miniscule bags of expired Ronald McDonald cookies.

My only moment of confusion? When our designated McDonald's employee host brought the cake out and asked me if I wanted a knife and a spatula. Umm, yes. I think I would prefer that to letting 13 children tear into the cake with their bare hands (that were recently all over the play area).

My only question? Why oh why have I been holding birthday parties at my house?