"Now We Are Six"

Am I the only mother who gets completely nostalgic with EVERY birthday? He's six. The boy who made me a mama is six. Six years old! Let's begin with a very brief journey through those six years.
I can't believe he was ever this tiny.

Learning to eat. Love the Cheerio on the arm.

"Raaawwwwrrrr!!!" First Halloween.

1 year old, at our home in Levin, NZ.

Two years old!

Three years old!

3.5 years at the Victoria, BC Snowbirds airshow.

Superhero at 4 years! This one has stuck. He's still a superhero most of the time and now he AND his brother "fly" around the house playing "Heroes".

4.5 years on the beach in Victoria, BC.

Hippie-haired Easter bunny, a year ago at 5 years.

And now, at six, looking oh so sophisticated.

Around 6:30 or 7 am, January 19, I was lying in Silas' bed with him, just a few feet away from Ethan's bed and suddenly, there was bouncing, bouncing, bouncing from Ethan's bed. He's sometimes slow to wake, but not on his birthday! He woke up, literally bouncing. He bounced down the hall to our bedroom. "Wake up, Daddy! I'm 6!" He yelled into his father's face. And we made our way to the living room to open presents.

This was "Lego Year". We've started collecting the "little" Lego and Ethan is thrilled.

Ethan also *really* wanted a Little Pony. This pony has been continually fought over by both boys for 2 days now. Sheesh, I wish I'd kept the ones I used to have as a kid.

More Lego.

Ethan's birthday party consisted of 5 friends (the other 4 or 5 kids we invited were all away on holiday. Ah, my "summer" baby. I grew up in the same boat, having a July birthday, and often my friends were away when it came time to celebrate. Ethan didn't seem to mind, though).

The party began with trampoline jumping and the new "waterslide"!! The kids all had a pretty good time on it.

Birthday Boy goes for a slide.


Silas stood like this, eyeing the whole thing suspiciously, for the first 20 minutes.




Ethan and his friend, Joella.

I finally put Silas in the small pool of water at the end of the slide.

He was highly distrustful.

And then he started splashing.

And decided it was worth the fun. "Wittle pool. Wittle pool!!" (little pool)

Opening more presents. More Lego, a pirate sword and a movie! Couldn't get more perfect than that for our boy.


Boys and their Lego. These are Ethan's friends, Lazlo (in the middle) and Jarad (on the left).

Snack time!

And the cake! I wracked my brain for weeks, thinking of what kind of cake to do for Ethan's birthday, and at the last minute, decided on a Dinosaur cake. We built up the "mountains" with extra cake pieces and icing and Colin even made a lake. And then I bought little plastic dinosaurs to roam. It was cute, even though it didn't look terribly professional. The thought was there.

However, Ethan's first comment, upon seeing it, was not, "Oh wow" or "That's so cool!" No. The first thing out of his mouth was, "What's in it?" *sigh* If you know Ethan and his eating "woes", you'll understand. But he warmed up to it. ;)

And then, methodically, blew out each candle, one by one.




This was the "raise your hand if..." game. "Raise your hand if you like cake!" Raise your hand if you are a superhero!" And so on and so on. Some made sense, some were extremely silly. I can't remember them all. I DO remember though, Jarad said, "Raise your hand if you were born in Australia!" He was the only one. His parents are from here, but I forgot they were living there then. Then, every other family represented had children born in different countries. Emma and Joella (sisters) were born in New Zealand. Lazlo was born in the United States. And Ethan, of course, was born in Canada. It was kind of cool. A very multicultural little group.



It was a great party, lots of fun had by all, though I was told by a couple of the kids that we were missing "party games" and "pass the parcel". Oh well, guess I'm not a perfect party-throwin' mama. I think I provided plenty of fun and sugar. Haha!

And now, we can finally breathe. And let our bank account recover. Whew!