Happy Birthday J!

J turned 6 this week!

and he's still got those sweet cheeks!!

He chose to have a fishing-camp out party.  We invited a couple of families to meet us at a lake for canoeing, fishing, and (thanks to M) a delicious dutch oven dinner!

It was a bit windy, so the only game we played was a little fishpond where you traded your catch for candy.

We didn't even have an elaborate birthday cake.  We just stuck candles in J's s'more-ito, sang Happy Birthday, and called it good.

What is a s’more-ito you ask?  It’s something the kids discovered a couple of weeks ago at a camping skills class.  You take a flour tortilla, spread PB on it (optional), sprinkle chocolate chips and mini marshmallows in the center and then roll the whole thing up burrito style, and wrap it in tinfoil.  Set it in the coals until it’s melted and slightly toasted.  Let it cool a little bit, because, yes, that molten hot melted chocolate can burn, and then eat.  S'more-itos might actually be messier than a traditional s’more, it that’s conceivable, but it's a lot of fun to say, especially if you can really roll your Rs.

After we said good bye to our guests, I came across fireflies!!!  We've never heard of them in the area, but  there they were flitting about around a bit of wetlands at the inlet to the lake just to celebrate J's 6th.  The kids caught some and brought them back to the tent to be our night lights.

Once it got good and dark, it started to rain.  We decided that it would be too much effort to get everything packed up in the rain and in the dark, and rainstorms here almost never last more than 15 minutes.  Well this storm lasted several hours!  Being the first camp out of the year, we'd forgotten that our tent leaks.  Opps.  On the bright side, now we know that all 5 of us can almost, sort of sleep on one queen sized air mattress when water starts pooling in the bottom of the tent!  At one point I looked around and found that someone's pillow-pet was getting more air mattress real estate than I was, and once I took over those square inches for myself, I slept almost as well as I ever do while camping.

All in all, J's 6th birthday will always be as unforgettable as J is himself!