Celebrating our Tommy

Tommy wanted to open his presents first thing on his birthday morning.  It was going to be a busy day (October!), so we obliged.   He has wanted an instant camera ever since his cousin, Cami, brought one when she visited us for his baptism.  So, although the film is ridiculously expensive, we finally gave in and bought him a green Instax.  He loves it and has already learned a lot about what subjects/lighting look good and what don't come out well so he can wisely use his film.  He also wanted "a lot of" popsicle sticks (it's been nearly 2 months since his birthday and I still don't know why) and an infinity cube--and, of course, Beanie Boos.  We had a full regular fall day with many things on the to-do list, but we still found ways to celebrate our boy, like bringing him McDonalds chicken nuggets for lunch at school, and feeding him his favorite foods for breakfast and dinner.  He asked me to make an "ice cream lasagna" for a treat, which was delicious. 

Although it was a non-friend party year, we decided to ignore that particular pattern this time around, and take Tommy and his two best buddies, Dominick and Ike, to the Mindbender Mansion exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to celebrate his 9th.  Oh my goodness!  The energy of three nine-year-old boys could power the city of Los Angeles!  I was exhausted by the end of lunch and we hadn't even made it to the museum yet.  Hahaha!  All joking (or not) aside, it was a fun day for Tommy, and that is the whole point.  Luke was my buddy for the day, while the three boys dragged us around the museum to see all of the things they were most interested in.  The Mind Bender Mansion was full of different kinds of visual, spacial and mental puzzles.  It was so neat!  We also saw the adorable IMAX film about Giant Pandas (which is one of Tommy's favorite animals, so, perfect), explored the Rocks and Gems exhibit and played around in the space exhibit.  It was a great day for our boy and his buddies, and I was so grateful for Luke's good company to keep me sane.