Joseph turns six!

Well, Joseph turned six years old yesterday, and today we celebrated with an "army party." His friends, also being little boys, are really into military stuff, and what can I do? He told me on Sunday that he loves war and doesn't love Jesus. I kept my cool and think he'll probably grow out of it, preferably by the time he's old enough to enlist. I even got him two guns for his birthday since his only request was "weapons." They are those nerf dart shooters and are surprisingly fun to shoot. They are bright yellow and cartoony looking I think the chances of them making him casual about violence are low. He thinks they are awesome.

In an ill-advised move I decided to sew camo bandanas as party favors, which cost more in time and money than I bargained for. But sewing party favors gets me some homemaker points somewhere, I'm sure. We also ordered a huge box of those awful little plastic army men to pass out as party favors and make all the other parents curse our names as they are perpetually scattered around their houses for the next few weeks. But they kept our boys occupied setting them up in battle formations for several days straight. Not to mention they make perfect decorations on a camo cake:

So we got the boys decked out in their camo gear, some incongruous orange streamers hung around the living room, and the table set:

And then, the boys felt very excited and anxious for a long time while they had to wait for things to get started.

Then the guests arrived in a whirlwind of complete chaos. We had originally scheduled the party for a nearby playground, despite the fact that last year it sort of hailed a little bit during his outside party and was generally miserable weather. Anyway, we tempted fate again and it rained today, so we had it at our house instead. I'll just say it was a lot of people and adrenaline packed into our house. We did our best to focus some of the energy into a few games, including a target shooting game with the nerf guns, a game of Drill Sargent Says, and army crawl races.

When it was time for cake and ice cream, we were glad to have a tangible, immediate bribe to get everyone to calm down for a minute. Joseph felt happy.

And isn't he a handsome six year old boy?

Joseph is such a blessing in our lives; we feel so lucky to have had him with us for six years now. He exudes life and energy. He has an incredible, unusual gift for thinking big. The more little kids I meet, the more I realize the gift he has. His projects involve moving large pieces of furniture, grand-scale landscaping projects, and pyrotechnics. He just has a vision for big projects. And he is extremely creative and resourceful at finding ways to overcome obstacles. It is a pleasure to see his mind work, and it will be very fun to see how these talents of his play out as he grows up. For now we just enjoy having him in our family. We love you, Joseph!