A week and a couple of days ago was Max's birthday, but his birthday always seems to be a little like Woodstock inasmuch as there's bad acid and people with mud all over them. Wait - I mean, it always seems to go on for about three days. Even so, you still have to be careful about what you eat during those three days. I took off from work early last Friday and C & I picked him up at school and got smoothies. He chose smoothies over ice cream. He got to open his first couple of gifts (and the card from Nick & Lo) at home, change into his "cool clothes" (his Trogdor shirt and Spider-Man jeans) and we headed off to pick up Abby and go to the school carnival.
We hooked up with his two friends, Steven and Cedar, and played games, rode stuff, got balloons, faces painted and won crappy little prizes that made them inordinately happy until nine o'clock or so. We borrowed a van from the Guys and got McFoodGarbage on the way home. Then, there was cake - an ersatz red velvet job purchased from a strange woman at the school carnival bake sale, and dolled up by C when we got home. Max's friends were suitably impressed that Max sleeps in a tent and has such a cool room filled with great stuff. After much playing and distractions, the boys finally retired (which is to say, stopped pretend snoring and telling whispered fart jokes when I go would to check on them) at - wait for it - 1:45 in the morning. They're six. I'm totally spoiling this kid.
At 6:45 they were up again, though to be fair, Steve and Cedar woke Max up. We had some cereal and then some more playing, and the boys were back with their folks by ten. My call, inasmuch as C was out on a volunteer project and it was just me refereeing the three with a baby in my arms the whole time. Max opened the 1st present from Josh and Amy then, colored a little, and settled in to watch Zathura, one of his favorite movies, while I cleaned the house back up. My mom and grandmother arrived at 1 or so, and we hung out, opened more presents, ate more cake, watched a football game, talked and spent quality time. Max went to sleep that night with his new Transformers in his new Pirates of the Caribbean pajamas.
Sunday, C made a huge breakfast, and we all of us made Animoto videos together. After my mom and grandmother left, we took Max to Toys Backwards R Us (thanks, Mr. Barry) to spend his 40+ dollars of birthday loot. He got a new Marvel Guess Who game, some Mega Blocks knights & monsters, and a Lightning McQueen who's kind of like a fusion of the "Pimp My Ride" and Mr. Potato Head concepts. Gifts came throughout the week, like the rest of Josh & Amy's stuff (some cool science experiments) and Matt & Cayce's JLU people, featuring the much sought-after Metamorpho, and Max's new "favorite" (today, anyway) Wildcat.
There is a new photo album (Max's 6th) on the left that does a much better job of telling the story than I just did.