Happy Birthday Thomas

So.. I'm kind of sick of cake by now.  We've also wasted a lot of it in the last month, but here we go again! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!!!

This is a pretty darn special birthday for Thomas because he's turning 8.  I also feel kind of bad for him because it seems like his birthday always gets dumped on.  Last year, I had just gotten home from the hospital recovering from childbirth and 2 surgeries with a brand new baby girl so there wasn't really a chance of awesomeness.  The year before our little 1 year old Riley had RSV along with Connor and again, not a chance it would be awesome.  I have considered celebrating his birthday on his half birthday on years like that, because trust me, February birthdays are just crap. LOL But his half birthday is 15 days after Connor's and 4 days before Matt's and I like to torture myself the least amount possible and by that time he has usually forgotten. (I know, seriously I'm a horrible mother sometimes...)

So this year I wanted it to be as memorable as possible.  I was up until 2 the night before decorating with Matt.

We made a banner that was about 20 feet long.  So long in fact, I had to finish half of it, let it dry, then roll it up and finish the other half because it wouldn't fit in our house.  Then Matt and I went outside and put it up in the yard so the whole world could see it was Thomas' birthday.. (Or at least everyone that drive down our street).

 (I apologize, we opened the door to a whole bunch of deer on our yard that then ran down the street. I wanted to take a picture at night right after I put it up in case the deer came back and decided to use it as a crash banner... lol  Also, look at Loki He doesn't know quite what to think!)

So, now that we had sufficient public awareness of little Tom's awesome day, time to take care of the inside of the house...

I wanted Thomas to have an "entrance" so I got a disposable plastic table cloth for like 98 cents and hung it in the doorway like a curtain.  As for the balloons, I just got regular bag of balloons, blew them up, taped them to the wall and hung string from them so they looked like they were floating... but for way cheaper. :-)

Then we got a big ol gift bag and put Thomas' first present in there that he could open while we were all awake in the morning before Matt went to work.

Thomas' carreer choice has changed from an astronaut to a paleontologist. So, before he went to school we let him open up a.. wait for it....

Dinosaur bone excavation set!!! It was actually pretty cool.  It was a hunk of... really crumbly rock?  He was able to chip away at and expose the dinosaur bones and other things they had hidden in it (Like leaves and crystals and stuff)  Once he got all the bones out and brushed off, he could assemble them into a dinosaur skeleton.  He was the happiest kid on Earth. :)

After he left to school, the boys and I went shopping for more gifts for him (Don't judge, it was a busy weekend!)

We got him some pretty cool gifts.  A treasure chest to put his things in, an Angry Birds game (you pick a card which tells you how to build the blocks and where to place the pigs.  Then you put your birds in the slingshot and try to knock it over and the card tells you how many points you win.  The came comes complete with blocks, pigs, birds, slingshot, and little TNT box. SO FUN!)  He got a box of colored pencils and a giant coloring and activity book, a light up top and a little toy gadget thing that I don't even know where to start to begin to describe it... LOL

Thomas had recieved a very special gift on Monday.  It was a triple combination from Horsey Papa with his name engraved on the front, and Horsey Papa's testimony written on the front page.  It's been pretty much inseperable from little Tom.  He told me that he went to school and told everyone ALL ABOUT IT!

Yesterday we went to dinner at Chili's with my mom and dad and Brian.  My mom and dad got him a giant beanbag chair thing.  I love this chair.  It's actually big enough for an adult to sit in and I personally find it quite comfy, so it will fall apart before he ever grows out of it... Which hopefully will be a really really long time from now.

 

Please be forewarned if you ever come over that Thomas is very protective of his chair and he gets extremely agitated when anyone comes within an arm's length of it while he's not sitting in it.  I have this new fun game where I'll walk past it and bend my knees while I'm walking like I could sit down at any minute triggering a little Thomas anxiety attack and I just keep walking.  Poor Tom is so picked on...  Makayla doesn't like it when I do that either.  I think it reminds her of how strange her parents are.  I'm pretty sure her first sentence is going to be "Mom, staaahhp! your embarrassing me!!!"

Anyways.. The Nilson's couldn't make it to Chili's because Rae Ann has the flu, but to our surprise, Glen and James came walking through the door with presents in tow! :)  They gave Thomas a cool Hot Wheels track that goes on the wall and is motorized and you watch your cars go around and you can flip which route they take and there's a monster that eats them, and if he catches your car he spits it off the track and hits the cat with it. (True story)

So I'd call yesterday successful.. Thomas did tell me that it was his favorite birthday EVER!! (But honestly, it's not really all that hard to outdo ourselves from the previous years) He did say something pretty sweet on his way out the door to go to school after he had only received 1 present, His exact statement was this"

"Mom, this has already been the best birthday ever.  When I woke up, I saw how good you put up those decorations and it made me feel really good.  Thank you very much, I can tell that you worked really hard."

... Sweetest kid EVER!  
 Happy Birthday little dude!