Have You Ever Hosted 18 Children?

Tomorrow is my daughter's 6th birthday. We had 18 of her closest friends join her for a birthday bash at the gym over the weekend (where my wife and I happily let the three teachers take over and run the show!) And it occurred to me that this is an innocent, odd and yet fun age. Here's some of what I overheard at the party:


- "I want a pony for Christmas. Well, actually, not a pony, just the cash to buy one."
- "Music class is, well, it's just boring, 'cause we don't like, do much in there."
- "I want a Coke." (when he realized we were serving bottled water)
- "I like math and art!"
- "This is ridiculous."
- "I can jump higher than you. Oh yeah, well I can run faster than you."
- "Mr. Skylar's Dad, I have to go to the bathroom."
- "Knock, knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" followed by wild laughter.
- "May I please have two extra pieces of cake to take home to my two sisters?
- "Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9," followed by wild laughter.

I also witnessed: boys who were burping at girls, a boy who ate two pieces of cake, asked for a third and when we denied him numero 3, he opened his goody bag and ate every piece of candy, someone picking their nose, boys who were in the foam block pit jumping and wailing on one another WWF style, and my four year-old bossing her sister's friends around and telling jokes.

Yet among all the chaos, I also noticed a lot of polite gestures, pleases and thank yous and genuine friendship and cameraderie. It's clear they're all still trying to figure out how to be little people in public, but they definitely care about one another and have fun together. But Mominprogress and I still feel sorry for poor Miss Dorsey, who wrangles 20 of them all day long.

We get a little crazy having the birthday so close to Christmas, but Mominprogress and I were quite pleased with most of the gifts my girl received -- nothing too gratuitous and lots of creativity starters: make your own flip-flops and nightlight, crunch art kit, sticker maker, scrapbooking kit and Crayola Model Magic (which is terrific stuff, by the way!). And four girls gave her Webkinz -- which are apparently the Beanie Babies of the 21st Century complete with Web codes to keep the animal alive online by playing games and winning points. Which will be a great way to put the Mac Mini to work after Santa sets it up. And a Border's gift card, which is so great for two reasons: it's practical, yet extravagant to a 6 year-old, AND she is so proud to have her very own "credit card."

And at the end of the day, we still wonder how she's turning 6 already.