Elliot celebrated his sixth birthday today (even though his official birthday is not until Saturday). We organized a "Cars"-themed party, which turned out to be a big hit.

Believe it or not, after celebrating five other birthdays here in the Netherlands, this year was Elliot's first real Dutch party -- which is to say: a majority of the guests were Dutch (or at least non-American) and the primary language spoken during the party was Dutch. Somehow, this threshhold seems significant.

One of the main reasons that we organized the party for today instead of for Saturday (his actual birthday) was that we wanted to create some separation between Elliot's birthday (a fun occasion) and his best friend Tobias' departure (a sad occasion). This Saturday will be the last big hurrah for the Dubois family -- with a farewell party at the H88 -- and Elliot has been dreading the arrival of his birthday, because it means that he'll have to say his last good-byes to Tobias. When we dropped Tobias off, back at his house, and Elliot saw all the moving boxes piled up -- it seemed that the reality of the Dubois family's imminent departure started to set in more fully. I feel bad for my boy. I know that it's going to be hard for him.

Still, today was a day for smiling. A day for celebration. Saturday will be that in a way, too, but in a hard kind of way.  Today was just a good time for eating cake, playing games, and being silly with friends.