Six is huge.  Girls are no longer cool.  As much as Lyell enjoys, works with and plays with the girls at his school, they were not invited to celebrate his birthday with him.  So we ended up with 8 boys at our house.  The look you see on Teri says "These boys are going to destroy my house - get them out of here!"

So off we went.  I had arranged a scavenger hunt.  It was hard.  The only clues were simple black-and-white photos of things like a picnic bench, a sign, or a stairwell.

But as hard as I made it, those boys were focused.  Here we read the prize they found in a ziplock bag hidden under a rock in a fountain.  Sound hard?  Took them about 2 minutes.

To make matters worse - I gave them a photo of a tree in the woods.  Mind you we were walking in the woods - so there were lots of trees - but they had to find "the right one".  Not a problem - here Marc displays the prize.

My overestimation was at two of the stops, they found a safe with a math problem.  Do the math problem correctly and it produces the number that opens the safe.  But in the frenzy they couldn't concentrate so I had to help them with it - but only a little. 

In addition to no girls, our big six-year-old requested a camouflage cake.  Never seen one?  Well neither had I.  But the mama was not daunted.  Here it is complete with Swiss aircraft landing on it, and Mathieu ogling it.  Mmmm.

Back home we did a little "bricolage" in the work room.  We had stacks of cardboard, dust masks and a roll of duct tape for every boy.  It was fantastic - they made a creation I dont even think I could describe.

And after all the dust settles, its time to sit down and write those thankyou notes.  In the new birthday shirt, of course. 

All I can say is that six is huge.