Preschool Kids Get Lavish Graduation, Birthday Parties
Elaborate, themed affairs cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Aug. 23, 2011 — -- TLC's hit reality-TV series "Outrageous Kids Parties" features lavish affairs, including over-the-top birthday parties and graduation parties for preschoolers.
That's right. Preschoolers.
5-year-old Derek, from Long Island, NY, loves candy. So his love for candy served as the inspiration for his party, which his mother, Donna, dubbed a Willy Wonka-style candy fantasy.
"This party is really for Donna, and Derek is just a prop," said the boy's father, adding that Donna was "not very good with budgets."
Donna and Derek head to the candy store with a budget of $500. They buy multiples of any item that catches their eye, and end up spending $1,303.50
And when the big day arrives, it's clear that the candy budget isn't the only one that was blown.
Derek's preschool graduation party features aerial dancers, bouncy houses, a rock wall and a towering cake.
"This is the coolest graduation party I've ever been to," one of Derek's classmates says.
Derek's parents spent $31,838 on their son's big bash.
"Twenty years ago, a clown making balloon animals was a big deal," Leesa Zelkin, a children's event planner, told ABC News.
"And over time that's become run of the mill, that's become the norm, and now I think people are trying to not only outdo one another, but they're trying to outdo themselves.
Little Sadie definitely knows how she wants to celebrate her 6th birthday.
"The birthday party that I want is a country carnival," she said, with "a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a dunking booth, I went to enter on a horse."
When her mother asks how she'll be dressed, Sadie, from Cary, NC, replies, "I'm going to dress like a cowgirl."
Sadie's mother also has some ideas of her own.