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My daughter just started preschool and I am getting my first taste of birthday parties - Hollywood style. Oh boy, am I in deep trouble! Ha ha.

From working at Access Hollywood and hearing about the parties Nicole Richie, Gwen Stefani, Victoria Beckham and other parents throw, I knew that parties weren't simple cake-and-ice-cream-and-pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey-affairs.

(Pictured: Tori Spelling and family attend a baby's posh birthday party)

Over lunch one day, I got my own personal party tutorial from super-mom Heidi Klum, who talked about the parties she's thrown for her kids and how much that can cost.

GULP.

We went to two birthday parties on the same day this past weekend and at one of the parties, I walk into what could easily be a movie or a magazine shoot. The house is GORGEOUS. I mean like decorated-by-someone-with-amazing-taste-and-lots-of-money, gorgeous. All the parents at the party look like they could be actors or rock stars - this is one good looking bunch. The birthday's girl's dad is in the music industry and many of the guys have tattoos and have hip style. The birthday girl's mom is a bi-coastal stylist with a killer wardrobe. No wonder her daughter is the best dressed kid at school… I mean this child dresses better than I do! Actually, I think their nanny is dressed better than I am at the party in her cute Summer strapless dress with sparkly sandals.

I have on my mom "uniform" of cargo pants. Ugh.

Some of the moms look like models. They are glamorous in leopard print and high heels. One woman has on a turban type headband with vintage style clothes. Another mom wears a long white silk maxi dress with brown Lanvin sandals. White? With my child, that outfit would be trashed in about five seconds flat!

As I put my purse down on a couch near the front door… I notice the other mom's bags are designer… Chanel, Givenchy, etc. The party looks like a professional planner did it… everything and I mean everything, matches… from the margarita glasses (for the adults!) to the custom made water bottles with their daughter's name on them. The house looks like something out of a magazine and I would later learn that it IS in a magazine… one this month in fact.

In terms of Hollywood parties, it's not some crazy over-the-top party where they've brought in live elephants or anything like that. But everything is coordinated and very pretty and I could see how this type of perfection could either inspire creativity in other parents or incite keeping-up-with-the- Joneses competition, which seems so prevalent these days.

I had the best time people watching. I have a feeling with the parties I will be attending that it's gonna become an amusing sport for me. These people are obviously all very successful, yet I am not envious. More like amused. As someone from the South, where I had a very normal middle class upbringing… I never get tired of the Hollywood-ness of life out here… it makes me laugh!

Now… where can I rent that live elephant for my daughter's birthday party in January…