William's Sixth Birthday Party

So, today is actually William's birthday, but since all our Thanksgiving company is leaving today, we did our celebrating yesterday.

To start the day, the girls (which included my sis, Nina, Michelle, Theresa, Cathy, Anna, and I) all went shopping, while Dan had a boys' day out with sons, Kevvy, Gabe and William, adopted-son, Omar, and our new friend, Brian.  While we were hunting sales in the department stores, the boys were out on the Uncompahgre Plateau hunting out just the right Christmas tree.

  And they found a beauty.  Not as big as last years' tree --  because of the new desk, we have to put it in a different window, closer to the downslope of the ceiling -- but, still, it's a nice, full, pretty tree.  It's become a tradition to cut our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend when we have more man power, though we won't actually decorate it until the week before Christmas. But, bare or not, I love having it next to me as I sit at the computer here; it looks and smells warm and comforting just standing there in its God-given simplicity.   Now, as Advent continues, the kids and I will make ornaments, bit by bit, to hang later.



William's first peeled potato.  He was
very, very proud of it, let me tell you.

 But, anyway -- I digress!  To continue with William's birthday story...  It's also a family tradition to peel way too many potatoes for Thanksgiving mashed potatoes -- for the express reason of having leftovers for potato soup the next day.  So, after we girls got back from shopping, we quick-cleaned the house, and rearranged all the furniture to accomodate the tree the boys had put up while we were gone.  Then we made potato soup, with garlic bread and crackers.  The big brothers and sisters figured out how to personalize the two boughten ice cream cakes for William to have for dessert.  Then around 5:30, we welcomed our friend, Brian, and our two parish priests whom we'd invited to join us. 

We had the soup.  And the soup was good. (How can potato cheese soup not be good?)

And the soup was followed by William's birthday cakes -- with a car ramp arranged between the two of them so that a matchbox car could zoom down between the six flaming candles.  The cakes were good and the stunt was appreciated -- especially by the two little boys.

Then, William opened his presents.

And the games began.


Play dough is always a hit around here. 



But these two dollar-store goofy glasses got some serious bang for the buck.
Here are Gabe and Birthday Boy, William.



Here's Omar.



We all thought Kevvy looked kinda natural.




Even Brian tried them on.



But then there was this gift:  a set of three Nerf guns
with a super pack of extra Nerf "bullets."
And...  Well...  You want to talk about getting some mileage...




Here's that six-year-old William.



Here are a few of the things you can do with Nerf bullets:

Lovely, Michelle.

And, in case anyone thought that having the priests over for dinner necessarily means having a quiet, sedate, and formal evening....  Well....  There was a semi-lull in the middle of the activity for a couple rip-roaring games of Catch Phrase. And some nice interludes of lovely piano playing.  But, the evening was mostly dominated by...

                                  Nerf Wars!



Father B.  is a formidable Nerf war opponent!

 



And Fr. J. is a dead aim!

You should have seen it in the thick of the battle!  Noone was safe: Nerf bullets flying everwhere, children big and small slipping and sliding on the floor, darting behind couches and counters -- challenges, parries, grudge matches...  Fr. B. and Fr. J. both had the kids on the run. Simultaneously, the young adults (with Dan and the Fathers joining in occasionally) held a long-running match to see who was best at throwing the suction-cup bullets clear across the roomwith enough trajectory and aim to make them stick on the big  north window... We are still finding Nerf bullets everywhere.  But it was a hoot!   Our "Fathers" were (not uncustomarily) the life of the party!
I think everyone had a great time.
And I'm pooped.

But William says it was the best birthday party ever --
And that being six years old is pretty much fun so far.
"It's just like being five, but with more toys."

Happy Birthday, Little Guy!
We sure do love you!