Excess? What excess?

Alison is as high as any 9-year-old should ever be. From exquisitely hand-decorated sugar cookies (Aunt Margaret is a master)to gift cards and new Wii games and Webkinz and $2 rubber bracelets, she may have reached a new height in birthdays.

I thought after five hours in a water park with 9 of her friends, I thought she'd be tired. The Dairy Queen cake, silly string war and pinata refueled her, though. And when Jenna (who couldn't make the party due to previously scheduled soccer) arrived, it was as if she got yet another fuel injection.

They took in Furry Vengeance, giving it a nearly reel-by-reel, real-time review. "I bet I know what's going to happen next." "Oooh, that's stinky." "Awwww. How cute is that?" "He's mean...." Coming home, they needed more food and then settled in with Zubber (a huge disappointment; don't bother with this unless you're like Aunt Margaret and have both patience and talent.) before "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

At one point in the madness, Jeff looked at another parent, rolled his eyes and said, "This is just how my birthdays used to be."

In retrospect, maybe there was a smidge of excess. I didn't have birthdays like this either, but I'm enjoying them through Ali. And it was fun to spend time with some moms I don't normally hang out with.

And Ali? She lapped it up. But she's not unaware of or ungrateful for how good she has it. A couple of weeks ago, we were in the car on the way home from school and talking about time travel and how if you could be like Phineas and Ferb, you could change your whole life.

"I wouldn't change my life at all," declared Alison Reed (now this this was BEFORE her birthday blast.)

"Really?" I asked. "Your life is so good you wouldn't change anything?"

"Well. It would be nice to have all my grandparents," she said. "But that's all."

I love that girl.

And now, Excerpts from a weekend of fabulous, 9-year-old appropriate excess:

1. Ali was reviewing her new Phineas and Ferb soundtrack (thanks, Dad!) and discovered that some of the songs had a hint of country in them. She accepted it because, she said, "There's a little bit of rock mixed in."

"What makes you think it's country?" I asked.

"Well, I heard that harmonica and then I heard that quote: I ain't ever seen a country boy with tires on his truck this high," she said, clearly displeased.

Later on, there was a romantic little ditty.

"Oh, the agony," she moaned, rushing to fast-forward. "Those sweet words make me barf in my mouth a little bit."

2. In the rush of trying to transition from the pool to the arcade, Dominic Datillo paniced. "I can't find my pants!" he yelled repeatedly.

Jeff has proudly told everyone that a boy lost his pants at Ali's birthday party. I bet he'll sing a different tune in a decade...

3. Apprised that Jenna couldn't attend Alison's birthday party -- the first one she's ever misses -- the girls were temporarily bummed. But then they were thrilled that despite the next day being Mother's Day, Jenna could come late and have a sleepover. I'm not sure which one said it, but one said, "I like it better when it's just the two of us, anyway." "Me, too," said the other.

4. This morning, the girls wanted cookie dough for breakfast. I said, "Our diet was horrible yesterday. You can't have cookies today."

Jenna gasped. "Diet?"
Ali said, "Yeah, my mom is on a diet."

"Not my diet, you goobers. Yours! Yesterday, did either one of you even see a vegetable or a piece of fruit?"

"Well. I saw one," said Ali.

Happy Mother's Day!