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18 thursday feb 17 2000 economist sun stouffville tribune etcetera by jennifer brown staff writer word up mom pin the tail on the donkey is passe and musical chairs are simply pedestrian birthday parties are big business these days as busy families seek to take the chaos and highpitch roar of prepubescent excitement outside the home in search of the best party venue in town gone are the days of threelayer duncan hines cakes and home party games from an early age kids these days know the drill of the event party at rainbow playland in richmond hill kids run jump and play in the massive play structure of balls and climbing ropes but with a flick of the light switch they know its time to move on to the lunch room for pizza and cake then its another round of play before time is up the gifts may not even have been opened yet but parents have arrived to pick up their kids and staff are preparing for the next shift of partygoers unionville mother of three kathy smythe knows the exercise all too well weve done mad science colour it wild where they make their own pottery bowling parties usually something involving an event said smythe whose three children two boys and daughter sarah range in age from 5 to 1012 this weekend my daugh ter is going to a chocolate factory party you learn about a lot of them through word of mouth and local publications said smythe like many busy parents she loves the idea of taking a group of kids off site away from the confines of the family home to some place where everything is taken care of from shacks to loot bags its nice to have somebody else entertain your kids said smythe who acknowledges it can be a challenge to keep coming up with a different funfilled theme for each birth day there are lots of different party places available but the focus is really on the chil dren having fun but depending on the venue and number of children getting someone else to host see parents page 19 w as part of our tenth anniversary weve invited a very special guest see ronald at the milliken mills community centre on saturday february 19th at 2pm come and celebrate 10 wonderful years with the milliken mills mcdonalds community centre and library 2000hcdoumsltaotjnt5ofljnmfathml mary ann roger gilliam and the management team thank yon for 10 great years