Dallin is 6

Hi folks.  So, I hear Dallin had a birthday early this week.  Here's how it went down.

Dallin was born on Labor Day, September 6, 2004 at 11:57 pm.  I'm pretty sure my doctor thinks it's great to deliver a baby on Labor Day.  He probably hopes for at least one each year. Fast forward six years later and it's Labor Day on September 6th yet again.

Dallin decided he wanted a robot party this year.  I had a bit of a hard time coming up with games and activities for this party but was just happy it wasn't Transformers or some other character.  We had a good 12 guests plus our own little boys and it was rowdy, but I think they all had fun.

Dallin and his robot cake.

The decorations.  I asked Dallin if he could build some robots to use as decorations for the party and he told me something like, "You know that I'm pretty creative, so I can make some good robots."  We had "Nuts and Bolts" (Chex Mix) and I made labels for the water bottles that said, "Machine Oil."

This is a relay game we played.  The kids had to wear a robot breastplate and use the grabber to transfer the power cells (balls) from the basket to the power pack.

Mark's sister Stacey made this robot costume for Halloween a couple of years ago (sorry the picture's not great.)  She came out to attack the kids and they were suppose to throw balls at her to defeat her.  This is the part of the party that got a little out of control.  Note to self: next time you have fourteen little kids wild at a party you might want to sit them down and explain just exactly what "attack the robot" means and what it doesn't mean.

After the party we went to Mark's grandma's house to see Mark's aunt Penny and her daughter Adeline.  Adeline is Mark's cousin but she is Adam's age.  They were visiting from out of town and apparently Adeline was telling Grandma she "wanted to see her people," meaning she wanted to hang out with some kids.  We went swimming and had lunch.  Adam and Adeline are in this blurry photo here. 

After swimming and getting dressed Owen discovered the fun of the slide.  He would climb up the steps all by himself, get to the top and twist his legs under him precariously until he could scoot forward and slide down.  He did this over and over and it was lots of fun to watch.  All those parks apparently have influenced him.

For dinner later that night I pulled out our birthday plate for Dallin to eat off of.  I painted this with Mark's mom and sisters at As You Wish. 

Next up, Adam is four next week.  Wow.  Just keep the birthday plate on the counter.