Birthday Parties

Hello Blog-iverse, (I'm am so sorry I just wrote that), I have just come back from a family friends 6 year old daughters birthday party. It was a Teddy Bears picnic themed party, and yet on the invitation, it was stipulated that no one should bring their bears with them. I firstly assumed that this was so that no ones bears would get ruined or dirty during the festivities that were to ensue. But how wrong I was.

It was because all the children attending would be receiving a free bear and clothes with which to dress the bear when they arrived. There were 30 other children there. On top of this, pass the parcel was played, resulting in each child gaining some more clothing for their bears and also musical statues with everybody who got out getting a prize as they left the 'dance area'. Yes, that is correct, when you lost, you would receive a prize. 3 large tables were filled with various candies, fruit, cakes and hot food, with a regular size fridge completely full with copious amounts of soft drink, Juice, Cordial and Chilled Water. There was a jumping castle, (on which I played for about 15 minutes as we arrived super early to help set everything up), and the traditional 'lolly bags'  were no longer 'bags', but boxes. They were full size plastic versions of chinese take out containers (the ones that look like a cube with a handle on top) colour co-ordinated with the party decorations. Inside, it was filled with delectable treats right to the top, with extra lollipops attached to the outside and 2 helium filled balloons on each.

Does this seem a little overboard to any one else?