Thomas' 6th Birthday

It's been a crazy week. It seems like Thomas' birthday was so long ago. He had an Iron Man theme party. I'm not super excited about Iron Man because women are very objectified in his movies, but Thomas has no idea and will never see the movie (at least, for several years and as long as I can prevent him from seeing it). He just thinks Iron Man is cool because of all the toys and heavy marketing. I almost bought a cake this time, but when I found out how much it cost and what it consisted of, I decided to just do it myself. I think it turned out pretty well.

I had too many games planned, but that was fine (because I wasn't completely prepared for all of them). When Michael and David (my brother) spontaneously jumped in on the fun and extended it, I just crossed another game off the list with a sigh of relief. I keep wondering why I do this to myself. The answer is, I do it because my kids have an amazing time, and they love reliving it while looking back at the pictures.

Here are some pics from his party. We started with the standard, Pin-the-tail-on-the-_____, but this time it was "Pin the Spark on Stark." I explained very quickly the story of his power source so the boys would understand why he has the circle in his chest. (I saw Iron Man 2, and since he has a circle most of the time, so I stuck with the circle.) It quickly became evident that the blindfold we were using was inadequate,

so we added a towel and started over.

Michael and David got in on the fun, really playing up their "blindness" by pinning the spark on a child's forehead (with tape), or a balloon, or, in David's case, eventually himself. The kids got a huge kick out of their antics.

While we were finishing up the blindfold game, Michael got into a wrestling match with all the kids against him.

Next, they headed outside to practice aiming with their hands (like Iron Man does to blast his opponents) with silly string. (A first and last for us.) I didn't have this game well planned out, so we just divided them into two teams and let them at it.

Michael had purchased some Iron Man water guns from the dollar store for the gift bags, but the kids saw them, so while we were setting up for pizza, they started shooting each other with them. Since that was what all of them wanted to do, we loaded up the Iron Men and let the kids fire away after they ate.

Thomas had such a fun time. He loved having his friends over. I think they add a lot of excitement to his day.

He asked for Super Mario Brothers Wii for his birthday, and an Iron Man costume. He knew that if he got the Wii game, there wouldn't be much else, but I know for sure that he was so happy with what he got.

See?

That night after he was in bed, he called me over and whispered in my ear, "Thanks for my birthday. And thanks for the Iron Man costume and Super Mario Brothers Wii!" I'd say it was all worth it.