The birthday cake
The birthday boy, crowded around the ninja walking on water experiment, which required a quantity of cornstarch that came in a box roughly the size of a carton of copier paper. I just love this picture of Scotty - who for the entire day was the unflappable birthday boy!
Scotty & Dan with the homemade ballistics gel. Several shots were fired into the gel with a pellet gun. All of which actually went thru the gel, into the board behind it -- so when you try this one at home, always have something to actually catch the projectile. Don't count on the ballistics gel to do it for you.
Emma, with cornstartch ninja water dripping from her hands. She was also standing in the water, but I didn't get a picture of her feet. 
Eliza with wormy-worm, who is cleverly disguised as a big clump of cornstarch water. That water was the coolest thing -- it looks like it would be sticky and wet, but when you touch it, you find it's dry, and just brushes off. Even the clumps in Dan's hair just crumbled when I touched them. Just really, really strange. 
Two best buddies at the party. They're like little twins, except for Dan's blond stripes, which save me & Jenny the embarrassment of mistaking someone else's child for our own!
Andy, with his pants rolled up, walking on the water.
Chris, stuffing a potato into the cannon. In the way cool category, I have to mention Scotty's granddad, Papa, who built the cannon -- in a day! - for the party. They used an acetylene torch to light it. The cows stood at the far end of the field -- literally acres away -- and watched potatoes land in the field, looking over at us like they were saying 'be afraid, be very afraid' to each other.
Beth, rinsing off Andy's hands after the cornstarch experiment. This picture just sums up how very much the people in our tribe have come to mean to us all. Andy is just crazy about Beth, who in addition to the cleaning ritual assistance, later listened to Andy as he explained every pokemon in his pokemon Diamond game. I have learned so much from observing my friends with my children, the patience they have, the compassion they share. What continually amazes me, tho, is the genuine love I feel these women and men pouring into my children's lives. We belong to a community of people whose love for each other, and our love for them, defies words and description -- it can only be felt, soaked in, and treasured.
Dan, with Scotty by his side. I have this feeling that we'll be watching Dan & Scotty grow into the kind of lifelong friends we read about in novels, truly two halves of a whole. Someday, when Scotty does invent the next amazing engine or device to make life more amazing, Dan will be his test-driver/pilot and biggest champion in the excitement.
Scotty & Dan watching the smokeless black powder fire started by Papa. Moments later, he lit a line of the faster burning powder -- it went too fast and big for me to even catch a shot, but I think it's part of Kevin's video.
Emma, late in the evening, by the bonfire. In her hands is a package of the snappers Jenny got for the party. I'm sure the front yard is littered with both remnants and unpopped snappers.
Andy threw his snappers into the fire, and danced as they exploded.
Yeah, the party went well into the night We finally dragged our sleepy children, and our sleepy selves, home sometime around midnight.
Truly, a fun time was had by all!
They upgraded to the pedal race car, which tended to get stuck on the cars as they passed. Andy got the car unwedged from Chris' work truck.
This shot was taken just before the race car ran off the driveway -- you can see it getting off-kilter -- rolled and tossed Eliza! She got scratched up but she'll be fine. 
