Carter's 7th Birthday

Carter asked to have a sleep over with his two best friends from school instead of doing a big birthday party with his friends and family this year. I loved that idea and really loved that it was super easy. Although I did feel a little emotional about not putting together a special party for him as I love pouring my love for the kids into their parties! He loved that doing so meant he got 3 separate parties this year. We celebrated with my family the weekend before his birthday, with his friends at his sleepover on his actual birthday, and then with Ty's family the weekend after his birthday. He was pretty excited about that. He definitely started out his 7th year with a bang!

The weekend before his birthday he was telling everyone it was his 1st birthday party which was cute! He asked to eat dinner at Taco Bell so Oma and Opa treated everyone to dinner there. Then he asked for ice cream instead of a cake or cookie cake. Jeremy and Thomas went with me to Braum's and we picked out all types of yummy sundae ingredients so everyone could create their own sundae. I put a candle in Carter's sundae and he was positively beaming as we sang him Happy Birthday. He got a stuffed dinosaur, Play Doh, and a Harry Potter advent calendar from his Oma and Opa. He loved that he got to open a bunch of doors of his calendar at once since he got it on the 7th. Thomas got him a Lego Movie 2 house Lego set half price at Target. Carter was super excited about that one because he'd picked it out on Amazon but I told him it was too expensive to add to his wish list. Jeremy also got him Legos.

Working on his advent calendar as we sang him Happy Birthday.

Oma helping sort pieces so Carter could make the house.

Carter's birthday fell on a Saturday this year. I rearranged my morning run plans because I wanted to be home when he woke up. He ended up sleeping in until 7:45! We did the traditional marshmallow with a candle in it when he woke up. Then when he came in for breakfast Ty and I had decorated the table and set out his presents. He opened his presents from us and played with them while I went on my run. When I got back over 2 hours later he was still doing Legos, so I was glad I decided to change things around! His friends came over at 3pm that afternoon and the fun began. We had Little Caesar's pizza per his request and Ty made cookie cake with no icing just as Carter requested. We got some buttercream icing from Reasor's for the kids to decorate their cookies if they wanted icing. There was lots of playing with Legos, spinjitzu wars with the Ninjago bayblades, and Nerf gun wars. Carter wanted to have Nerf gun wars with his friends and we didn't have any Nerf guns. Since he didn't have a big party, we bought 4 Nerf guns for them to play with using his "party money". Ty was a little bummed we just got 4 because he wanted to play too. Elise got shot in the face first thing and was not interested in playing anymore after that so Ty got to take over. It was mostly the kids vs him and was hilarious to watch! We got safety glasses for them to wear which was money spent well! The boys finally quieted down and fell asleep around 10:00 pm. We put a mat out on the living room floor. Carter and Henry slept on it in sleeping bags and Landon chose to sleep on the couch. They were up at 4:30 the next morning and I thought they went back to sleep because I went back to sleep and slept until 6am but apparently they were awake that whole time! They got picked up at 11 the next morning and all were very tired! Carter may still be recovering from his lack of sleep that night!

The table set up and ready the night before Carter's birthday.

Elise super excited about the Nerf guns.

Carter doing Legos when I left for my run.

Henry arrived first.

He invited Elise to play with him.

Ready for Nerf wars!

Decorating their pieces of cookie cake.

For Carter's 3rd birthday party of the year, we arrived in Topeka on Friday evening. Saturday afternoon we celebrated his birthday. The highlight was having his cousins, Wyatt and Kinley, there to celebrate with us along with Uncle Paul, Aunt Amanda, Gma, Gpa, Gigi, Papa, and Ty's Uncle Kelly. Gma had Carter pick out a cake flavor from the bakery that specializes in food for those with allergies. He chose a strawberry lemonade cake and she special ordered it for him. He loved the cake and he isn't a big fan of cakes, so that was special. She had Lego-themed decorations and he got to open his presents. He also got to play in the snow that was leftover from the snow they got on Monday. It was a wonderful time and he felt so loved. My favorite moment was Wyatt blowing out Carter's candles. It was too cute! Carter started his 7th year feeling so loved!