Party time at the Heat game

Most of the row starting with the seat next to me and a large chunk of the row behind us filled in with people having a birthday party for a 7-year-old last night. At an NBA game.

The mix of boys and girls entered right before the 7:30 p.m. start with their stubby little arms wrapped around tubs of popcorn and clutching those giant foam No. 1 fingers. Some were wearing empty popcorn tubs upside down on their heads, and they all had on itty bitty Miami Heat jerseys, including one boy with G MONEY personalized on his back. Aside from the mind-boggling expense incurred for a celebration like this, consider the energy level, the wrangling, the herding, the distributing of cotton candy and ice cream bars for 15 little kids!

Ricky and I thought they were extraordinarily cute, but then, we weren't the ones in charge of the fun-size critters. That job belonged to the hyper-alert parents doling out stacks of dollar bills to the food vendors strolling the aisles. During the national anthem, one girl belted out the entire song quite proficiently, and the whole group enjoyed making high-frequency noises whenever the opposing team was shooting free throws. For the most part, the wee fans seemed to actually pay attention to the game in between slurps and chews, and they lasted until sometime in the third quarter when, one by one, their eyelids got heavy and they began to tilt over onto their foam fingers, which made excellent pillows.