An Impending Birthday Party/The Party is Over

I started writing this post about The Bairn's upcoming birthday:

The Bairn is turning six this month.  (How can it be?  Wasn't he just born?  Soon he'll be in college!  etc.)  Now that he's in school, he's discovered the world of birthday parties.  In the past, we've mostly just invited a few family members to the house for a homemade ice cream cake and then taken a trip to the wave pool or a museum as a special treat.  This year I have promised The Bairn a birthday party.  He came home from school today and told me that he would not tell me anything about his day, because it's a secret, except that he asked his enemy at school if he would be nice if he came to The Bairn's birthday party, and the enemy said, 'Yes.'  The Bairn informed me that this means we will be inviting the entire Grade Primary class to his party.

Then a month went by without finishing the post and now the birthday has come and gone.  [And I still didn't post it, so now Valentine's Day (mentioned below) is past also.  I'm winning at blogging.]

I talked The Bairn into only inviting the boys in his class to his party and told him we would be having it at home, despite the fact that birthday parties at home are Not The Thing at The Bairn's school.  Keep the Expectations Low is my main parenting philosophy.  [We prepared valentines today.  There are no toys or candy attached to the cards we printed out from the Internet.  My other philosophy is I Don't Care What the Joneses are Doing!  We're Not Keeping Up with Anyone!  Fight the treat bags, people.  Srsly.]

The party was Lego Ninjago themed, and Papa came as Sensei Wu and trained all the aspiring ninjas.  Ellen is still wearing her ninja headband (strip cut off an old bed sheet - I am SERIOUS about the low expectations).  She even wore it to church and while she was making 'snow ninjas' in the yard yesterday.

I added a note on all the invitations that gifts weren't necessary [loooow expectations], but every single child still brought The Bairn something.  We opened presents at the same time we did the cake, and The Bairn was so excited by his Lego sets that he didn't even eat any of his own cake until the next day.

Baby Ninja