a little Holden time

So as you know, today is Holden's birthday. And yesterday we had his birthday bash with some family and friends. But I always like to do a little family something to celebrate the boy's birthdays as well. It worked out that Jeremy was off work on Friday, so we planned to spend the morning doing something especially fun for Holden. My parents were at our house on Friday as well. Pax had a fever and was not feeling well at all. So instead of doing a family thing, we left Pax with Papa J and Nana at the house and decided to just have some Holden time. In hindsight, this was a great decision for our birthday boy. Neither of the boys get alot of one-on-one time with us anymore. Since they are on the same sleep schedule, our attention is normally always divided between the two. Obviously, I want my children to have siblings, so I wouldn't have it any other way. But if there is an opportunity for one-on-one time, we should always take it. Holden loved having both of our undivided attention all morning long. We delighted in some precious time spent with our almost 3-year old, while Pax got some special TLC at home by his grandparents. Though I wish Pax hadn't been sick, it really worked so perfectly. After breakfast, we headed to the Indoor Safari Park. I had searched high and low for a fun car themed morning (to go with his party), but came up with nothing that I was sold on. So late Thursday night, Jeremy and I agreed that Holden would probably love this place and all the fun things he could do. And it was a pre-schooler's dream come true. There was a train ride, robotic animal rides, a ball pit, trampoline, slides, miniature golf and even a toy store. Holden loved every minute and had a ball playing with the other kids. He's such a fun-loving boy! It's the best way I know to describe him. He loves to have fun, to keep moving, to run and jump and climb. And he is so passionate about almost any activity he gets involved in. He rarely sits back to watch, but jumps in on the action. It brings me joy to see the joy that he finds each day. Not that he always wears a smile on his face and we don't have down moments. We have plenty of each. But I love to see his joyful spirit. And Friday we were able to see alot of it.
Even though Holden would have stayed here until he fell asleep in the ball pit, we did eventually leave for some lunch. We took him to Fuzzy's since we love that place and he loves chips. :) We went all out and ordered him the unhealthy nachos from the children's menu. Which he only picked at. You see, he's a bit crazy and not a huge fan of queso yet. Seriously, CRAZY! This was the children's plate of nachos.
Yikes, that's alot, right? We could tell he was getting tired, but in an effort to make the most of our time celebrating, we made one last stop for icecream. He chose chocolate peanut butter (my kind of boy!) and he loved every bite. It was a great morning with Holden. He loved being the center of our attention for that little chunk of time. And we enjoyed celebrating him!