So, we had this “thing” yesterday.

We didn’t call it a party.  It was simply a gathering of family and friends sharing presents, snacks and cake (with 6 candles on top.)  I did ask him a couple times if we could have a party (while in the midst of one, shhh) and, as my nephew can attest, Monkey walked away without giving me the satisfaction of a response.  Dissed by my own 6 year old, nice.

The ride up was fun.  Monkey was in the back seat chattering away to himself.  Once in a while he’d direct a comment or question to one of us.  The general theme of the conversations centered on the fact that we were going to “Grammy’s home!”  That was a new phrase, we called Grammy from the parking lot of Dunkin’ Donuts so she could hear it herself 🙂

The not-a-party went great!  Monkey was amazingly social, chatting and interacting with lots of people.  Everyone was amazed with his improved vocabulary.  He was happy and mischievous…basically your average 6 year old boy.  Yay!

I got to visit with people I hadn’t seen in a while.  Monkey was so good that I was able to relax and just let him be.  In past years one of us has had to shadow him constantly to keep him from doing or grabbing something he shouldn’t.  There was none of that this year.

Monkey got a little overwhelmed on the 2 occasions when all of the attention was directed at him…the opening of presents and the blowing out of the candles.  He was able to pull it together pretty quickly to finish opening gifts.  We did let his 5 year old cousin, Munchkin, open the last two boxes of clothes we’d bought because he was NOT impressed by clothing, lol.  It took him a little longer to bounce back after blowing out the candles (and we didn’t even sing!) but once Duhdee slapped a piece of cake in front of him, he was happy.

The ride home was also fun!  It was nearly bedtime before we left for the 2 hour drive home but Monkey did not get fixated on whining “Home! Dogs! House!”  Noooo, instead he spent the ENTIRE ride yelling “Mac!  Wait!” at all of the 18-wheelers we saw on the highway.  There are a lot of 18-wheelers on the highway, btw. *Twitch*

We finally bought a new digital camera so I will have lots and lots and LOTS of photos to share.  I do need to go through the hundreds of photos and pull out a few dozen.  I let Munchkin use the camera for a bit and Grammy W. made me promise to delete some of the tons of photos she had taken of her, lol.  There’s also a really flattering one of my butt that needs to go…that was actually my cue to take the camera back.  I may have a totally inappropriate sense of humor but there will be no butt-shots shared here. 

If I had managed to get one of my niece’s butt when she MOONED me, at my 6 year old son’s birthday not-a-party, in front of her grandparents and her great-grandmother…I would have had to share that one…on Facebook at least 😉  I love my family.