I haven’t had a party for years. Forgive me if I squee and get a little “!!!” happy.

Thursday was my Girlfriends’ Guide to Gaming party, sponsored by Brand About Town and Nintendo! And on Thursday night, the first thing I saw when driving up to the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum on Washington Ave. was this sign:

The ladies of Brand About Town had reserved a gorgeous space inside the museum. We were there to promote the new Nintendo DSi, the newest in the DS family of handhelds. It was launched in April of this year.

I’ve never even held a DS or DS Lite before so I can’t make a comparison to those earlier models, but I CAN say that the DSi is pretty darn awesome. I’ve spent hours already just playing with all of the features on the one I got a few weeks ago. Seriously – it has wireless and an Opera browser! The marketers did the right thing in targeting us tech nerds for Girlfriends’ Guide to Gaming.

It was such a great night, getting to know the games and especially getting to know the girls. I was more than a little nervous when I was first asked to host the party and realized that I don’t have a lot of girl friends who live in St. Louis. Now I think the party was a great success because I invited people I knew – or mostly-sort-of-blog-land-knew – and invited them to each bring a friend. That method proved to be a lot of fun because we all got to know new people.

The party room was a huge space in the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum.

Melissa and Erin's husbands love gaming, so I invited the girls so they could give the boys a taste of their own medicine.

Amelia promised not to give birth at the party - she and Jen had to finish CrossworDS first.

Rachael almost couldn't come, but she managed to swing by for a little bit, Baby James in tow, and try her hand at Brain Age.

New friends, Angie and Liz IRL!

Liz blogs at Will There be Cake? and this was the first time I’d met her.

Even my little sister was able to come. This is my last chance to upstage her - I'm going to be her bridesmaid in August!

My friend Becky brought her old Gameboy case as a purse! That was a definite conversation-starter. Oh, Nintendo, you've come a long way.

The Rhythm Heaven group pauses for a snack. The food was fantastic! Black bean cakes with cilantro, chicken satay, chocolatey desserts, and of course we could has teh mini cheezburgers.

When the girls finished gaming at all four stations, they got a little surprise gift! Kelly and Nora show off their new toys.

I met Nora for the first time that night – she blogs at Walking Through the Rain.

And a good time was had by all

I think it’s safe to say that our new DSIs won’t be gathering dust. Brain Age was probably the most popular game at the party. We all wanted to have the lowest score! (I’m 33.) I got Brain Age with my starter set a few weeks ago, and I’m an addict. I smelled addiction in some of my fellow partygoers… you can tell. You just can. And since the DSi can connect wirelessly to other players in the room, you can play against each other on BrainAge, MarioKart, and others.

Rhythm Heaven was crazy because it LOOKS so simple, but once you get into it you realize that there is no messing around. It was tricky to get used to the stylus, but I think it made everyone more determined to beat the thing.

You can learn more about the DSi on the official website, http://www.nintendodsi.com. One of the coolest things about it – an upgrade from the previous models – is the DSiWare Shop. You can connect wirelessly from your DSi and download apps and new games – some for free, and some using DSiWare points. You can get points by registering your DSi and your software on the website, and use those points to get more! Since all of the girls took home a DSi and a game, we’ve all got points to shop with. Jenny from The Reckless Chef got me started on a downloaded game called Boxlife and I think we may have a habit on our hands.

AND… you can use your DS and DS Lite games in the DSi!

Big thanks to the ladies of Brand About Town and the folks at Nintendo, who for some reason chose me to hostess this fantastic Girlfriends’ Guide to Gaming party. And a big pink puffy heart to all of my friends – new and old – who came out to join me for this awesome evening. Game on!

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The Brand About Town ladies took all of these pictures. Click here for their Flickr photostream of the whole shindig.

Disclaimer: I am always carrying champagne in these photos because I was mingling and didn’t set it down at any one station. And it was free.