Max's Birthday

Max turned six years old yesterday and, as with all of his birthdays, I found myself saying “No, he can't be x, he must be x-1!! Where did x years go?!?!” (Hey, I'm a geek.) Setting aside the fact that I'm getting old, I can say with confidence that Max had a blast on his 6th birthday!!

The day started with him joining his “big kids group” at Bodøgården on a trip to a farm near Brabrand Sø (a large lake) where he got to see and interact with a bunch of different types of farm animals including cows, pigs, goats, and chickens (at least those are the animals Max talked about afterwards). They then got on their bikes (which they had brought with them on a trailer connected to the “Bodø Bus,” the van that Bodøgården has to cart kids around to field trips and birthday parties) and travelled around the lake for a total distance of 10 kilometers, which is exactly 10,000 meters (ha ha) or roughly 6.2 miles! They took frequent stops along the way to have a snack, and then later lunch, and to see the lake and its environs.

He was back at Bodøgården by the time I arrived at 2 PM to attend his birthday party. L. had made a cake for this party on Sunday and we dropped it off on Monday so it would be there on Tuesday just in case the baby decided to make an appearance in between (he didn't). They decorated for his party in the traditional way with lots of Danish flags everywhere, but his teachers also made him an American flag to display as well. His class then sang him Happy Birthday as well as a Danish birthday song that I hadn't heard before. They then counted slowly from 1 to 6 getting louder with each number until they were screaming and cheering in celebration of Max completing his sixth trip around the sun.

After his party, I took Max to the Aarhus fish market where we picked up a fresh salmon fillet, so L. could make Max's favorite dinner: salmon, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. We also went to Huusom's bakery near our house and picked up ANOTHER birthday cake to have after dinner.

When we got home, the kids had a short time to check in with L. and then we had a video conference with my parents for about an hour, so they could wish Max a happy birthday and watch him open the presents they had sent him. Max's cousin Anthony was also present for the video conference which was good, since Anthony is a Pokemon expert and Max had a bunch of Pokemon-related questions that needed answering!

After the video conference, we had dinner and then Max received a call from L.'s parents, who also wished him a happy birthday and he got to thank them for sending a new DVD for him to watch. After the phone call, he opened up the rest of his presents (he got a cool Lego Star Wars Tie Fighter that his Papa is not at ALL interested in) and then we had dessert.

Max had a lot of fun and you can see other pictures from his day in our Max's 6th Birthday photo set.

Happy Birthday Max!!!

Ken