Yesterday I felt almost like Sarah. I baked two kinds of cupcakes and a Hippie German Kindergarten birthday cake. Today the last half hour of the school day was taken up with a special story time about The Boy to which his family was invited and then all the kids got to snarf down some cake.

Then came the highlight of the party season for the Kindergarten set. There are five children in his class who have December birthdays. No one, thus far this year, had had a birthday party at all, but The Boy wanted a class party. I wasn't about to be the one who escalated the party cycle, but I still thought it would be nice to give him a party. I talked with the other moms of December kids and we decided to throw one party for all of them. The only problem being that December is totally full of stuff and everyone had something scheduled on every day we talked about doing. It finally came down to this afternoon, we doled out assignments -- one mom made sandwiches, one brought water bottles and a fruit and veggie tray and I brought cupcakes. We asked everyone to bring one gift per kid they brought with them. After letting the kids run around the park and freezing in the deceptively sunny, but windy, outdoors, we ate, sang happy birthday, ate cupcakes, and then let each kid at the party choose one present out of the bag. Everybody got something -- no party favors or birthday presents to worry about. It was a lot of fun, although I still haven't defrosted, and I'll be all in favor of doing a party like this every year.