1st Chicago Birthday Party

As you can see from this photo, Baxter has fallen in with the right crowd. They're nuts, every last one of 'em. (And here I'll ask you to click on that photo above and just look at those faces! Tell me they aren't hilarious.) Today's birthday party was a smashing success. Baxter requested a "science party" and wanted "centers" like they have in class. So, we gamely set out a few centers (dinosaurs, insects, the senses, weather) around the house, just a few books and puzzles for each one. But the real fun was in the experiments. These 6 & 7 year olds crowded around the dining room table for all kinds of baking soda/vinegar/citric acid-type stunts. I loved looking around at all these rapt faces (white, black, Asian, Hispanic) who were so interested and curious about everything. This really is a great age: they are funny and smart but without the snarky attitude of older kids. And I couldn't help but appreciate that they are now old enough to have a lot more impulse control!

It sure was different having no girls for the first time - I felt significantly out-numbered. Also, this was our first drop-off party; a couple parents opted to stay but they remained in another room talking to each other for the full 2.5 hours and never even entered the party area, so we pulled it off on our own. This was not difficult. It was also notable that while in previous years we've known all the kids really well, this year we'd only had a couple of them over to play before. Some of them I'd never even seen! But despite all of that, Matt and I both felt that it was our favorite party so far. The kids are just so much easier at this age, and it's such fun to joke around with these big guys - I like this big kid stuff, and I can see that Burley draws some great kids. Baxter really is lucky.