The folks that live across the creek behind my house had a party for their kids this afternoon.

Nothing unusual or wrong with that, a lot of folks have parties in their yards, right?

Not like this one.  They had a inflatable bouncy castle, a trampoline, a clown, a magician, a caterer, wait staff to hand out drinks and food, 2 ponies, a donkey and a llama. 

And that's just what I could see from my yard, there was probably more.

I don't think I've ever even considered having caterers and wait staff for any of my kids' parties.  Clowns and magicians..yeah, that'd be nice if we could afford it.  Bouncy castles..we've done that before.  Ponies...again, if we had the money, but I've never thought about supplying donkeys and llamas...and all of the above at the same time?  Never in my wildest dreams.

It led me to question just how much is too much when it comes to our children.  I mean, we all want to give our kids nice things, show them a good time, give them birthdays and holidays to remember....but when is it too much?  At what point does being a good parent cross the line and turn into excess?  When are we no longer simply indulging our kids and making them happy...but spoiling them rotten?  What happened to home-made cakes and treats, little goodie bags and games like hot potato?  More to the point, what's wrong with them?

I'm having difficulty pinpointing the exact thing that made me think of the party as 'excessive'.  There are just so many to choose from......