Cowen Turned 11

 Cowen wanted the same cake he had for his out-of-this-world 1st birthday--an alien spaceship.  It was my fourth cake in a very short span of time, so it wasn't quite perfect.  However, it had lots of candy so all the kids loved it.  Excellent.  We still had some aliens from his first birthday, so that's kind of far out.

 I love him so much.  That Cowen face. 

 We had to wait for Timothy for a few minutes before we could open presents so there was a lot of posing.  Brothers. 

 The littles.

 Sisters.

 I told Cowen to hold up enough fingers to show his new age.  It took him a second, then he rolled his eyes at me and did this.

 Oskar with baby Timmy.

 Timmy in his teddy bear suit.  As a sidenote, the doll is actually named Tim.  It comes already named.  I tried to convince Oskar to change it and had him all convinced the doll would be Dash (just so there weren't two Tims in the house) but the other children would have none of it.  Tim he came and Tim he would remain. 

 

Harriet was not so burdened.  Her doll was officially called Linnea, but she changed it to Rosie and Rosie it has stayed.

 He finally was able to start opening.  None of the kids could figure out what his first present was. 

 

I love that he smiled and was enthusiastic even though he was totally confused.

 

Then he got . . . sticks?  He was still confused but happy nonetheless.  What boy doesn't like getting sticks for his birthday?

 Love the above picture so much.  Both boys went nutso when they saw the box of rope.  Thank you, Smith and Edwards, for your 5 pounds of assorted, odds and ends of rope!  (Sometimes when I buy presents for Cowen I try to think of things Wyatt would have loved as a kid.  Totally works.)

 Clover was the other biggest fan of the box-o-rope.

 

The shoes were from Grandma Rasmussen.  They fit perfectly.  He loves them!

Timothy showing everyone what they could do with the sticks and mystery item (the blue things).

Lady Harriet looking adorable.

See--boys like sticks.

Building structures.  The blue things are some sort of fasteners that Timothy made.

Trying on his shoes.

Some of the rope was just the right length for jumping rope.

His birthday book.

More structure making.

Even Clover was delighted to spend almost two hours building and playing with the sticks.

Timothy's structure was more stable than those of everyone else.  He gave the kids a little talk about the importance of triangles. 

The kids were going to watch Cowen's birthday movie, but they were having so much fun building that the movie didn't happen that night.  It still hasn't happened, actually, because the weather has been so nice that we've been doing other things.  Eventually the boy will get to watch his birthday movie.  In the meantime, much shooting of the sticks out of his bow has been taking place (resulting in Eli having a bloody head--good shot, Cowen, now stop shooting at your brother), and some building, and some generally good times.  I think it is so much fun to buy presents for boys.  Happy birthday, Cowen--my darling, oldest boy.