Well, we rented the whole alley (all 8 lanes) as our local place doesn't have open bowling -- it's all parties. So having 10 kids or 50 kids it all costs the same. The issue is that Noah and Grace are in different classes so we don't have just one set of friends but we have 2 plus girl scout friends and preschool friends.

I spent a week baking and I used 5 lbs of butter and probably 3 lbs of sugar and flour. Grace was super thrilled which I always love.

K says that next year we aren't doing something this big and crazy. That's what she thinks.

Little kids with enormous bowling balls = never not funny.

Absolutely! And Grace? Give the CP kid a bowling ball. Actually, what was extremely touching is how so many of her friends tried to help her. Adorable.

We requested no gifts (which is tacky, I know) and asked for books which we will donate via Milk & Bookies to UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital. All the kids got stickers that say I DONATED and cool buttons. The gift bags were cookies and a chocolate bar. All in all, pretty low key. Except for the nutso baking.

the kids had a great time,

All that matters. That and you will recover eventually.

msbelle, it is like you are channeling me! One summer in college, I had a housemate who'd leave a holy mess on the stove and sink. Greasy flat skillet, fat splattered everywhere. 'Fatman' burgers, he called them.

I worked 6 am -2ish. He worked a shift that had him gone when I finally got home, and asleep when I left. I'd come home to that shit.

After several patient lectures, I just started placing the dirty dishes IN HIS BED. Mind you, he had a lab-basset mix, too. I liked that dog. We bonded watching AbFab and MST3K.

Between the sheets ruined to grease (he was a slobby boy, he didn't care that much) and when Louise decided to shred the sheets and get to work on the mattress for the grease that had soaked in (he did not like replacing the mattress when she unveiled the coils,) I got him to clean up after himself by the end of the summer.

I really don't like a gross kitchen. I will get ruthless.

K says that next year we aren't doing something this big and crazy. That's what she thinks.

That's what I said the year *before* I did Ben's Harry Potter party and was up until 1 a.m. painting house banners.

We requested no gifts (which is tacky, I know)

I don't think so! I would be relieved to know I could buy a favorite book that would be donated, personally. Picking affordable birthday gifts for kids you don't know super well is a pain in the ass, if you ask me.

I used to put an apartment mates shoes in her bed. she would leave them all over the living room and hall.

I keep a messy house, but when I live with someone, the mess is all in my room.

I would not have taken the stuff to his room if he had even put the dishes in the sink.

Sorry--I explained myself poorly--the reason I can't use a greased baking surface is the same reason I can't use non-stick. The press depends on the dough sticking to the tray to pull it out of the mechanism. So parchment paper, silpat, etc, are contraindicated by the press and recipes that I use. If there are presses that don't require that, they'd pique my interest, but as of now, it's a constraint of my equipment.

Why is asking for no gifts tacky?

should a resume be written in 1st person? Like, "I did x and I did that"?

My last one was. When I described my activities at a given job, I said "I ran content management projects and implemented Documentum solutions throughout the enterprise..." etc. How would you put it?

According to Emily Post: "But, there is no mention of gifts – not even “no gifts, please” – and never any mention of registry information on invitations. " I think it has to do with you are not to presuppose that people were planning on bringing gifts.

It's also really interesting how gifting is very cultural within my neighborhood. The Armenian families were all very wigged out by not bringing a gift for the kids and some did anyhow. One even gave a $20 bill to Grace! The rest of the families brought books as requested.

30 little kids is way more work than 60 teens! I'm glad a good time was had by all. Hope rest is an option now.

I have never actually used a cookie press, I did not know there was required sticking to the sheet. Sounds tricky. I bet if you stuck the whole tray in the freezer (probably not directly out of the oven) the different cooling rates of cookie and metal would make them easier to separate. Maybe also more prone to breakage. And sounds like a prohibitively slow process, really. But it's an idea.

Emily Post has a point, but for kid's birthdays, how else would you get that information out there?

I have never actually used a cookie press, I did not know there was required sticking to the sheet.

We have one, and my mom has one, and as far as I knew the dough was sticky enough to ... stick. But we always use the butter pretzel recipe, I think.