Birthday Bonus Round!

Yes, Carter turned three two weeks ago, but we finally got to have his party today!  Between Craig's schedule and other family schedules, it was hard to pick a day.  As it was, we couldn't find a date where both Craig and his brother's family could be here, which was a bummer since Carter loves his cousins, but we just had to do it before too much time went by!  Craig was in Toronto last night and got home around 1:45am, which I would have felt bad about had I not been up until after 1am myself trying to get ready!

We had a rough morning, which I'll cover in another post, but I was thankful when a reluctant birthday boy actually did go down for a nap.  The party started at 2pm, but he slept until 3 while we snacked and chatted.  My parents, Craig's parents, my cousin Lori, her parents, and my cousin Doug, his wife Lisa, and their son Dylan (first-time visitors to our house!) were all in attendance.  Just after we did gifts, my Aunt Kathy and cousin Brian arrived, as well.  It was a nice little group!

Carter has been pooh-poohing his birthday all along, not wanting to celebrate, open presents, eat cake, etc.  But when push comes to shove, in the end he does seem to enjoy it!  We convinced him to open presents, even though he said his belly was hurting (too many M&M's, he said).  If nothing else, we figured getting it out of the way might be a good idea, just in case!

Laughing because he was putting tissue paper on Daddy's head!

Spider-Man Duplos!

More Duplos!

Opening Grandma and Grandpa's present!

He really liked the Spider-Man Duplos from Craig's parents and kept talking about them while he opened the rest!  He got the smaller set of general Duplo blocks from my cousin, a set of Paw Patrol-themed Mega Bloks from Lori, sidewalk chalk from my Aunt Lynne, and pajamas, clothes, and a pre-recorded book from my parents.  He also got a nice assortment of money!  He seemed very happy with everything!  

We had some pizza, salads, and everyone's favorite broccoli-rice casserole for dinner.  If there was a blip during the party, it happened during dinner.  As Carter was sitting in his high chair eating his pizza, he said he had to pee, and then suddenly something was dripping out of his pant leg.  Yep, he had an epic potty accident.  Accidents are generally rare, but he had a couple this week.  Seems he does fine for weeks, and then suddenly has a cluster of accidents.  He's still ahead of Jacob at this point, so I know we're lucky regardless!  Anyway, the main reason I mention this is because I'd been thinking about trading out his high chair for a tall wooden chair from my grandma's house, but just hadn't gotten around to it.  Well, since he peed all over it, that forced me to unstrap it from the chair it sits on and take it to the basement for cleaning.  I guess we'll see how he does with the tall chair, and if he does well, his high chair may have gone out with quite a bang--a birthday meal and a major accident!

After pizza, we moved on to the cake!  As you may recall, the cake is where I usually put most of my party planning effort.  I had an idea this year, and all things considered, I think it turned out pretty well.  It may not be one of my favorites, but I think it was a very solid plan considering Carter's current interests.  With Jacob it was always easy to pick a sport, but with Carter his interests have been much more varied.  Last year I did cars, and this year we went for Paw Patrol!  However, I am not nearly talented enough to pull off their shield, let alone their lookout (but please look on Pinterest for every fondant-fueled creation I wish I had the time, skill, and guts to pull off), but I decided to buy the Busy Book as one of his gifts, and use the characters.  

Note the "hidden" 3 on the right :)

I almost ruined it at the last minute after I did a little experiment with the name (I tried piping it onto waxed paper and freezing it, hoping I could peel and transfer, but no luck), but in the end I think it turned out well.  Everything aside from the near-miss with the name went well, so I feel like I'm getting better at the process!

Time to sing!

He wasn't quite sure what to make of everyone singing to him, but the smirk says it all...

Despite practicing the proper way to blow, he had a tough time blowing out his candles, but he was sort of cute waving the smoke away after...

And he seemed to like his cake and ice cream afterward, so we'll call it a win!

The party was very nice and it was so good to have everyone at our house.  It only seems to happen twice per year, but it's nice hosting everyone, even if it means I'm busy all day and exhausted by the end.  If nothing else, at least my house gets a solid cleaning twice per year ;-)  It was nice to officially wish Carter a happy birthday with most of the people we love most, and we hope for a great year ahead!