Butterfly Birthday

We love to celebrate birthdays.  It's the perfect time to celebrate life and friendships!  Our good little friend, Xavier, turned four today and to celebrate his day, his family invited us and other friends to celebrate in Denver at the Butterfly Pavillion.

If you've never been there, you must go!  Beside all of the amazing insects they have, you have the option to hold a tarantula (which both Emerson and I did today!), feel a starfish, and wander in a jungle-like room filled with butterflies of all sizes, shapes, and colors.  And there's more!  There is a big room filled with butterfly facts, games, and activities for all ages of kids and a great gift shop to look through.

So, we packed our lunches, carpooled with our best friends, and enjoyed the butterflies and each other (unfortunately Landen woke up sick this morning and Jon was already planning on staying home to watch the NCAA games all day with his buddy, Tod, so we missed them today!).  We had a blast celebrating Xavier's birthday (plus the cupcakes Jen, his mom, made were adorable and equally as delicious)!  Here are some shots from our day:

I love this picture of the two of these best friends, Emerson and Kendall.

We all took turns holding Rosie, the massive and furry tarantula!!  I had absolutely no intentions of holding this thing, but Emerson agreed that if I would hold her, she would hold her.  So I had no choice!  The lady held our hand the whole time, thank goodness, because if she hadn't, I'd have probably thrown the thing across the room!  It still gives me a little bit of the shivers!

The butterflies were mesmerizing!  Emerson and Braeden were a little creeped out, but I thought they were beautiful!  And they were EVERYWHERE!  Flying all around us.  And as Bill is showing, they might possibly land on you!

After walking through the jungle of butterflies we had some playtime (while also learning about butterflies and their habitats), then enjoyed cupcakes and presents outside in the perfect weather.

And then we head home.  Emerson got to ride home with Xavier's family because she got to have a sleep-over at their house with Kendall (which is great! We're so blessed to have friends that our whole family is great friends with their whole family!).  Shelly took this picture of Braeden and I (and Greeney, his new tarantula) on the way home.

 

Now, off to bed and up again tomorrow to celebrate another birthday!  My grandpa turns 81 tomorrow!  (My grandpa literally has about the energy of a four year old, so I anticipate an eventful time tomorrow, as well!  Woo hoo!  :) )