Carter's Birthday Recap

Carter had a great 7th birthday this year. It began at 2:30 a.m. when he woke me up to ask if he could open his presents. I persuaded him to go back to bed for a few hours, which he reluctantly agreed to. He was up and begging to open them again by 6:00 a.m. and we held him off until 7 when the girls woke up.

He ended up loving all his gifts though at the time he was most excited about his new Lego set. He ate about 2 bites of breakfast before tearing off to his room to start putting his set together. We really wanted to get him something other than Legos and Wii games, which are all he asked for. We also got him a Nerf night vision gun set and an RC helicopter, both of which he has loved and gotten plenty of use out of. Unfortunately I ordered a few things from Amazon and accidentally shipped them to our AZ address so a couple of his gifts were a bit delayed getting here. He was very cool about it and had fun getting gifts a few days after his birthday.

During lunch at school we stopped by with some ice cream treats for his classmates. I'm pretty sure he was the most popular kid in the lunchroom that day. It is always so interesting to watch him interact with his friends and see how silly he acts with them. I love it.


After school I let him choose what he wanted to do and he just wanted to build his new Lego set so that's what we did. We spent the afternoon and evening together playing with new toys and just enjoying the birthday boy.

On my kids' birthdays I allow them to pick the menu for the entire day. The following is Carter's birthday menu:

Breakfast - coffee cake and fruit smoothie

Lunch - $4 Lunchable (hilarious because I offered to bring him lunch from a restaurant and he said, "no mom, I just want the $4 Lunchable that you never let me get." Ok, done)

Dinner - breakfast for dinner - waffles w/ syrup and whipped cream, scrambled eggs, sausage

Dessert - in lieu of a cake this year Carter opted for Bananas Foster Fondue

Candles in the scrambled eggs (since they couldn't go in the fondue):

So it ends up being pretty random but it was fun and he loved it all . The fondue was surprisingly quite good and combined his favorite two desserts - bananas foster and fondue.

On Saturday we went out for his birthday lunch to Texas Land and Cattle (a steakhouse) and had a fun time doing some more celebrating. His friend birthday party is on the 30th and he is having a (you guessed it) Lego party. I'm busy getting ready for a bunch of crazy boys to descend on my house!

About Carter at 7:

There are so many wonderful things I could say about Carter at this age. He is so much fun to be around and is a very loving child. He is quick to give hugs and kisses and STILL really likes to be snuggled and loved. He is also really kind and generous and offers his belongings to others who he feels might need or want them. Earlier in the year the PTA did a fundraiser selling specialty pencils to the students. Carter kept taking money from his allowance to buy the pencils. I finally asked him why he needed so many pencils and he told me he was buying them and giving them to his classmates who didn't have any. It was so sweet and generous and I could hardly tell him to stop being generous.

Carter is also very determined and competitive. When he does something, he really tries hard and gives it his all. He is easily disappointed when he is not the winner at just about anything. He tries hard in sports and school and at everything. This year he memorized all the Articles of Faith, just because he wanted to. He also taught himself how to write in cursive and how to play Sudoku.

Carter is a great big brother to his sisters. He always says goodbye to them with a big kiss on his way out the door and greets them the same way after school. They pretty much worship him. I often hear him "protecting" them to other people and he is a great helper, especially with Addie.

He still loves Legos, Wii games, playing with friends, riding bikes/scooters, playing basketball, wrestling, reading, Harry Potter, word searches, Phineas and Ferb TV show, P.E., playing the piano and swimming. He does not like homework, chores or getting ready in the morning.

We are so blessed to have Carter in our family. He is a real leader with his sisters and has such a fun and interesting personality. We love him SO much and are grateful for the spirit he brings to our home!