Birthday Party

MORE THAN 50 children dressed to the nines for a Halloween party and costume contest at the Union Bridge fire hall last week.The party was sponsored by Union Bridge Lions Club. Union Bridge Volunteer Fire Company donated its hall for the event. Before the contest, children played games and waited in line to appear before the three judges."I've been here many years," said Julie Scott as she kept track of her 3-year-old daughter, Lindsey, dressed as a princess, and her 15-month-old son, Mason, dressed as a devil.

A brief in yesterday's edition of The Sun in Anne Arundel gave two dates for a birthday party that The Friends of Pam Beidle are throwing for the 1st District County Council candidate. The party will be Sunday.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 7/15/98

Sean Wilson Jr. was not, strictly speaking, betting on the horses yesterday at Laurel Park, even if he was clenching his fists and shouting, "Baby G! Baby G! Baby G!" the entire first race.What he was doing, technically speaking, was celebrating his birthday with about a dozen of his friends and cousins, rooting for his horses and a fortune. On Tuesday, he turns 6.The racetrack might seem an unlikely place for a kid who is learning addition to bring his buddies, and until about a year ago, such a birthday party would not have happened in an organized way. But officials at Laurel and Pimlico Race Course have shed the blinders, and with an eye toward the future, they are making a spirited bid to attract a new generation of fans to the rails.

Throwing a birthday party for your child used to be easy: bake a cake, buy some of those silly cone-shaped hats with the elastic chin straps and pray that a litter of 6-year-olds doesn't trash your house.That was then. This is now.These days, children expect the birthday party equivalent of a Broadway show -- a full-scale production with clowns, magicians, face painters and balloon artists.And what used to be a small-scale business of part-time Bozos and amateur Houdinis is now a rapidly growing multimillion-dollar industry.

What's the best way to handle a birthday party for young children? I'm seeing parents leaving kids at birthday parties for three and four hours at a time. What is the host parent supposed to do when children are having fits and throwing tantrums when their parents aren't there?Lisa, ScottsdaleAriz.One of the best ways to head off all these problems, particularly with preschoolers, is to invite the parents to come enjoy the birthday party along with their children.Readers who called Child Life also suggest limiting the number of party guests and keeping the party short.

LOOKING BACK on it now, it was certainly a different experience holding my son's 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's.For anyone not familiar with Chuck E. Cheese's, this is a restaurant chain that specializes in food and entertainment for young children. It is considered the Taj Mahal of birthday party sites by anyone under the age of 8.With hundreds of screaming kids jacked up on Coke and pizza shoehorned into its video arcade and Skytubes climbing area, a party here takes on all the calm of a street bazaar in Marrakech.

WJZ-TV's Chris Ely was the master of ceremonies at the one-year celebration party of the Image Recovery Center at Union Memorial Hospital, as well as being an honoree. Ely, whose wife passed away from breast cancer, was recognized for his tireless efforts to educate the public on the disease.The center, founded to help women cope through positive self-imaging, opened last year under the direction of Marianne Kelly, with a lot of help from volunteer donors. Those honorees were Peggy Richards, who agreed to "before" and "after" pictures to publicize the program; Ron Reis, Evelyn & Crabtree; Diane Carter, Roland Park Florist; Judy Gilman, Davidson's Beauty Supplies; Darrell Simpson, of Fan Fair Concepts; Allan Elkin, Advance Business Systems, and his wife, Lois; Larry Park, Northern Pharmacy and Medical Equipment; and Neal Didriksen, University of Baltimore Educational Foundation.

It was supposed to be an afternoon birthday party for "Jim Jones." Instead, it turned out to be a traveling sex show and gambling bonanza attracting nearly 100 men -- and two dozen Baltimore police officers who shut the act down.Two undercover officers obtained $60 tickets, infiltrated the gathering at Councill's Restaurant and Catering on Patapsco Avenue and said they spent four hours documenting illegal gaming and prostitution.Police raided the hall about 4 p.m. Saturday and let the patrons go home but identified 25 workers and the lead promoter.

It was supposed to be an afternoon birthday party for "Jim Jones." Instead, it turned out to be a traveling sex show and gambling bonanza attracting nearly 100 men -- and two dozen Baltimore police officers who shut the act down.Two undercover officers obtained $60 tickets, infiltrated the gathering at Councill's Restaurant and Catering on Patapsco Avenue and said they spent four hours documenting illegal gaming and prostitution.Police raided the hall about 4 p.m. Saturday and let the patrons go home, but identified 25 workers and the lead promoter.

The best thing about having a birthday is the presents. Every kid agrees on that.But there's also the fun of planning a birthday party. Will the cake have purple or green icing? Should your younger brother be allowed to stay in the house when your friends come over?Here's something worth thinking about: This year, have a baseball birthday party.You could do this a lot of different ways. The best is to come up with ideas of your own. That way, your baseball party will be different from everybody else's, including Jerry Narron's.

Today's Not-So-Great-Depression has claimed a new victim: children's birthday party goody bags. And good riddance, too. I despise those little crinkly plastic bags full of $3-a-piece junk: the oddly fluorescent lizard made in China, the fake garnet ring with the finger-pinching gap in the back (isn't real garnet ugly enough?) or the ubiquitous rectangles of stickers, stickers, and more stickers. Yes, it's all junk that gets lost or tossed into piles in kids' bedrooms. Junk that is nonetheless a costly burden and time-stealer for overwhelmed birthday party parents.

I used to bowl semi-professionally - on the birthday party circuit - when my children were younger. It seemed they were always being invited to bowling birthday parties when they were in elementary school. From middle school on up, they were invited to the cooler version, "Cosmic Bowling," which adds another layer of entertainment in the form of flashing disco lights and blasting music videos. In the adult world, this is known as "Migraine Bowling." Frequently at these events, I'd end up reserving a lane a few down from the birthday party and bowl with the other parents who had drop-off and pick-up duty.

Phelps sure isn't resting on his Olympic laurels After the gold in Beijing, Baltimore's Michael Phelps is diving into the world of entertainment - and making quite a splash. Earlier news was that the 23-year-old world-class swimmer would be the host of Saturday Night Live's season opener. But he isn't stopping there. Yesterday, he was in New York, filming a cameo appearance for the HBO series Entourage.And the New York Post reported he earned an estimated $1.6 million advance from Simon & Schuster for a book to be titled Built To Succeed.

Laura Khoury's birthday is Dec. 23. She likes to do something extra-special for her big day so it doesn't just become part of the overall holiday festivities. This year, for her 10th birthday, Laura opted for a party at ShadowLand, the laser adventure center in Columbia. She had gone to ShadowLand for a friend's birthday party, she said, and had really enjoyed it, even though her team didn't win the laser tag game. "It was really fun," she said. "I was in last place, but I really liked it."

I have a theory about conspiracy theories. I think they were invented by people born in December. Today - four days before Christmas - is my birthday, and it's made me a bit paranoid. When I turned 9, my grandparents forgot my birthday. No card, no gift, no cash. Nothing. My parents made me rewrite my Christmas thank-you note, which originally read, "Thank you for the sweater. It was so nice, I almost forgot that you forgot my birthday, which is December 21." The night I turned 21, I went out with only one friend.

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele was standing in a Calvert County parking lot, telling a small group of supporters that his campaign for United States Senate was about "listening to the people of Maryland." Not only that, it was about hearing "the needs of the community." Hardly memorable rhetoric, but now preserved on videotape at the Maryland Democratic Party headquarters, thanks to the work of a campaign tracker. The party had sent a young staffer to tail the lieutenant governor, to record his every word and action.

THEATER PARADE OF PLAYS The 25th anniversary Baltimore Playwrights Festival gets off to a weighty start this weekend with Turn Your Head and Kafka by Laura Ridgeway. Produced by Run of the Mill Theater and directed by its new artistic director, Jenny Tibbels, the play intermingles elements from Franz Kafka's novel The Trial with his correspondence with his mistress, journalist Milena Jesenska. Brian Oakes and Julia Brandeberry star. The silver-anniversary season also features five other productions, including three bills of one-acts.

The weekend was supposed to be filled with cheer for Bryant C. Jones and his family. Out-of-town relatives came to Baltimore for Easter festivities and for a Sweet 16 birthday party planned for his daughter. But the birthday party Friday night was ruined by gunshots. As an unruly male teenager was being escorted out of the house, police say, he pulled out a handgun and fatally shot Jones before a crowd of partygoers. The next day, police arrested 16-year-old Jamal Charles and charged him as an adult in connection with the killing.

A 16-year-old boy was being sought yesterday in the shooting death of a man at a "Sweet 16" birthday party for his daughter, Baltimore police said. Bryan Jones, 42, was holding a party for his daughter in the 1000 block of N. Augusta Ave. about 9:45 p.m. Friday when a partygoer started causing trouble, police said. Jones escorted Jamal Charles, 16, of the 4000 block of Edmondson Ave. to the porch and asked him to leave when an argument ensued, police said. Charles pulled out a handgun, shot Jones in the head and then fled, police said.

Roger Joseph looked on as his 2-year-old daughter, Evelyn, wearing a sparkly tiara and standing on a chair surrounded by friends, opened a birthday present he had sent from Iraq. He saw her eyes widen as she pulled a camouflage backpack from the gift bag, and he smiled as her frosting-lined mouth broke into a wide grin at the sight of her new storybooks. After being deployed in October, Joseph, 39, was sure he would have to learn about Evelyn's birthday through e-mail and photos. But from 10,000 miles away at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, Joseph - a sergeant in the Army Reserve - was able to watch and participate in her birthday party over a live satellite video feed that beamed his image onto a projection screen at the end of the table.