We've been celebrating birthdays for at least a month now.  It's stretched out so long that it feels like we've been celebrating something or preparing to celebrate something pretty much since Thanksgiving which tumbled into Christmas which brought us to New Years and the day after that marks the countdown to Sophie's birthday which is really the kickoff for Martin's birthday.  What's that, you're saying?  I haven't posted anything about any of those events?  Right.  Anyway, so back to Martin's birthday.  It was TUESDAY and my boy is SIX.

He woke up early and it was still dark.  "Momma, am I six?" he asked.  "Yes," I told him.  "And you look totally older, too."  He wanted me to show him so I offered to take his picture.  While I waited, he practiced showing me how old he was with two hands (which he'll have to do for the rest of his life, he told me, no longer able to count his years with just the one hand), and yawned.


We had rootbeer floats for breakfast, which is our birthday tradition.  And trust me, it's a very good one.


Martin's party last week was a big success - food, pop, bowling, sugar, treats, and presents.  What more could a boy, age six, ask for?


Martin got a lot of great presents for his birthday.  I don't know who was more thrilled to see these skates.  For Martin it means his very own skates, and for me it means the end of arguing about who is going to use the skates that Sophie got for her birthday.


I made two batches of Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes - one for the party and one for the actual birthday.  These are definitely our new favorites, made even more delicious with the addition of Double-Stuff Oreos instead of the regular-stuff kind. 


We had a special dinner to celebrate Martin's birthday.  He chose a cowboy menu - chicken fried steak, corn on the cob, side of parsley.  It was delicious.


But man, were we full.


P.S. We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day for like two minutes in the morning.  And by that I mean we put on some green gear and looked at each other wearing it.