Your Party Will be a Success

People in LA really seem to like birthday parties. The 1920’s-themed birthday party I went to on Friday, featuring a $700 cake and 17-piece orchestra, felt more like a wedding than a 25th birthday. And I passed up a party a couple of weeks ago with an Evite that boasted a $2,500 tab in Santa Monica and a guest list of 300 people. Who even knows 300 people? But then again, I guess if I opened up that kind of tab somewhere, I would have 300 new friends, too.

So it was very refreshing to do a complete 360 and attend a 6-year-old’s birthday party on Saturday afternoon in Atwater Village. In fact, I’ve never had so much fun in my entire life. The backyard was turned into a total dreamscape, with a tent, cookie decorating table, fake tattoo parlor, piñata, Mystery Machine moon walk, and even a chicken coop. Most surprising, to me, is how practiced these California kids are at the art of the piñata. As soon as it was hung, without instruction, they all lined up in perfect order, and knew how far away to stay from the line of fire. From there, it was straight out action. One kid was scolded for throwing a rock at the pinata, the little sniper; the father took a knife to the piñata when no one was looking; the birthday girl puked just before it was struck, and then, with the resilience that only a 6-year-old can muster, managed to eat a piece of her birthday cake ten minutes later. And even though there were only about 20 kids there, it felt like 50 because they just kept running around and around and around.