Birthday party madness

Once again, I have worked myself into a tizzy about a kid birthday.

Little A's birthday is coming up in two weeks. She is oh so popular in her class (my dream undoubtedly), so I thought we should invite the whole class. Also, as room parent, I felt like being inclusive.

But then I realized she has other friends outside her class, and we were slowly creeping up to 25 kids. After last year's 5th birthday extravaganza, I vowed not to have that many kids again. So, I could invite just the girls, along with the extra girls she is friends with. But she has two good boy friends, and so that seemed strange. Plus, there are a couple girls in her class that she is just not friends with (no fault on anyone's part). But inviting all the boys in the class seemed silly, as she is friends with only the two.

I thought maybe I could send out the invitations in batches, to her good friends first and then the rest of the class a couple days later. As it was, I already waited until 12 days before the party to send the invites, cutting it pretty close. But that seemed lame, when all I wanted to do was limit the amount of kids at the party.

Just hours before I was set to send out the invitations, DH and I had a meeting in the park, while the kids were on the playground. I showed him the whole list, including all the kids who were outside the class. I *'d the kids who Little A has had play dates with, or had a friendship with. It worked out to be 11 kids. 11 kids is a nice number. Better than 25.

When we got home, we sat down with Little A and explained the situation. Our trump card was that with a reduced guest list, we would allow her to have gifts (with 25 kids, we were going to have a book exchange). She immediately agreed, even agreeing to the list of kids we had put together.

In any case, I should have taken my Dad's advice and just picked the guest list for her. At kindergarten, I think it is OK for parents to help select friends. By second grade, I believe the choice is the child's, unless bad decisions are being made...

What do you think?