Bowden's sixth birthday was on Wednesday, the tenth. I got home late from a last minute trip to Hemet...and very poor bowling...and set the table up for his waking-up. He was very excited, obviously, and we gave him a choice of waiting until after dinner to open presents or before breakfast.

He chose before breakfast.

A suitcase from Nanny was exciting enough, but inside...

...were Legos! I wouldn't let him open them before school, so we had breakfast, and then he was off. I had enough time to come home and take a shower before taking the other two chickens to the school playground to have cake with Bowden and his class...pound cake, nothing on it, Bowden's choice.. I was going to make the cakes, but then I figured I would need four pound cakes, two sticks of butter each...and I bought Sarah Lee. He was very happy with it.

I cleaned up while he was in music class, and then took him out early so that he could go with Josh to the Father's Day celebration with Lucy. Jack and I napped and read in the car, relatively, and then we all went home to play with birthday toys and so that Momma could nap. I have been pretty sleepy.

Bowden chose to have chicken and waffles for his birthday meal, and we invited the Whites and Aunt Lisa over to celebrate. Aunt Lisa had to work, and the grown-up Whites had to leave for their last senior high Bible Study of the year, so we kept Joel and Seth for a intimate party. Here they are, all of the party guests.

We had just played "Stick-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey," and everyone got two turns since we were such a small party.

Then it was time for crafts...

...which they all seemed excited about, but petered out quickly. Seth had a very happy expression, but the camera killed it.

Joel faked it for me. We made frames, and I took pictures to put in them, but the ink in my printer began to die, and both of the White boys looked a bit reddish.

Lucy is a princess at every party.

Bowden was just crazy. He took a bunch of pictures on his new kid camera, but I haven't figured out how to post them yet. I will do it on his long-forgotten blog, one of these days.

I let them watch a Land Before Time movie, Bowden's choice.

Josh took Jack-son up for a bath, and we had cake. More pound cake, with whipped cream and strawberries. I used trick candles, and the kids were amazed that they wouldn't go out, being little enough to have never seen that kind of candle before, or at least, too young to remember if they had. It was highly amusing.

I took all the candles out, and Bowden took a big lick off of the top, so I added more whipped cream and strawberries and gave the white boys the half that had been un-licked. No one seemed much to care but me.

Enjoying the cake.

I had enough goodies for goody bags, leftover from Cinco de Mayo, so Joel and Seth got to take home a bag each. This is Joel's real expression. He could be on t.v.

Seth, too, liked the idea of a goody bag.

Bowden posed with the snorkel the Whites got him. The goggles and snorkel were a big hit...

...Seth played that he was swimming for a good fifteen minutes.

Joel watched Bowden play games on his new camera- he claimed he wanted to- while Seth swam and Lucy told a story to her father that lasted forever.

Jack took his turn on the, "tongue thing" as it is called in our house.

Lucy continued her story in uniform. It was really fun having the White boys over, and Bowden had a good time. It was pleasantly low-key, but still celebrated, and everyone was satisfied. Bowden still had two presents to look forward to...a secret one from his Dad, and a present I got with Grandma and Umpa's birthday money- a Planet Heroes base. When he came down and looked at the table he said, "I wish Jacky had gotten as many presents as me!"

It was a nice day. I was ready for bed at 9 pm.