---

Adorned in blue and pink bathrobes, their hair held back by green sweatbands, Taylor Maguire and 11 of her best girlfriends are in the middle of their all-out spa day.

With their faces covered in lotion, their feet soaking in hot water tubs and their eyes being de-puffed with cucumber slices, these little ladies are enjoying every minute of it.

"It's wicked awesome," said Kendall Lavin-Parsons. "I love to be pampered."

These words are from the mouth of an 11-year-old Mansfield girl, visiting Maguire's home for a "spa party" thrown with help from The Little Teapot, a Millis-based child's party planning service.

Founded just two years ago by Michelle Schofield, a mother of two, after she threw a tea party for her then 4-year-old daughter Madison, the business caters to those looking for alternatives to the standard birthday party. Or maybe not.

These days, elaborate spa, tea, or character-themed parties are much more commonplace than a cake-and-ice-cream affair, and some are suggesting the trend is out of control.

The Web site www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org, an online campaign founded by William Doherty, a social science professor at the University of Minnesota, sites the following examples: 7-year-olds in rural Minnesota are picked up by stretch limos for a friend's party; a 3-year-old's parents in Minnesota rent a fire station and a private pool for two different parties; Twin Cities parents spend $450 for a Build-a-Bear party at a mall.

Then there's MTV's "Super Sweet Sixteen," a weekly series that chronicles rich teenagers around the country trying to outdo each other with parties more expensive than the luxury cars they get as gifts.

"There's a sense that it's out of control," Doherty told Time magazine in a January interview. "We're social animals. We look at what the standards of the pack are."

But there is more than one side to the story.

Sally Maguire, Taylor's mother, said she agrees to an extent that kids' parties have gotten a little out of hand.

When she was young, a lavish party was a trip to a pizzeria or maybe a Brigham's ice cream-theme affair.

"And that was more than plenty," Maguire said. "But kids get bored so easily, and something like that is like an every-month kind of thing we do already. Society has changed. It's hard to impress any kid."

The spa party was not for Taylor's birthday. The mother-daughter Maguires wanted a fun way to spend an afternoon during February vacation week. Sally Maguire has taken a few girls out for manicures and pedicures before, and found it to "cost a fortune." Having the spa come to them, and being able to include more girls, was a perfect compromise.

"Taylor's parties were always not the cheaper parties," she said. "But I don't think anybody would think, 'Oh wow, this is elaborate.'"

No girlishness extravagance was spared at the spa party.

Besides their facials and pedicures, the girls were treated to manicures, makeovers and were able to choose from two bins of dress-up clothes to walk on a red carpet and to pose for fashion show pictures.

The Maguires' dining room table was outfitted with a table setting fit for high tea, with bright-pink frosted cupcakes filling a tiered pastry platter.

Chair covers were tied with matching pink bows. Each girl had her own place card, and the plates were decorated with pictures of ball gowns and high-heeled shoes.

The "goodie" bags were miniature cosmetic carrying cases, with temporary tattoos, hair clips in colors including gold, blue and orange, and lollipops.

"I have a niece who is 8, and we did a spa party for her. She was getting past the whole princess thing, and in that age group they really want something a bit more grown up," said Schofield, 33, who runs the business with her sister Tanya. "It's a lot of fun."

Schofield, who also has a daughter Julia, 3, spent years working as an analyst, throwing her parties on the weekends.

The Little Teapot has grown mostly by word of mouth. She and her sister have done parties for daughters of New England Patriots players, and regularly donate parties to charitable causes, including the Make A Wish foundation and the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.

"I certainly had never heard of anything like this," Schofield said. "The idea was that I didn't want the moms to have to do anything. All they need to do is give us their home for a couple of hours."

And then sit back and watch the kids enjoy it.

"I was excited because I never knew there was something like this," Taylor Maguire, 10, said. "My favorite is getting your nails and toes done, because if we don't have any polish on, it doesn't really look good."

REBECCA KEISTER can be reached at 508-236-0336 or at rkeister@thesunchronicle.com.