Carter's Construction Party

Yesterday we threw Carter his first birthday party and thanks to all of the ideas in Family Fun magazine, the themed party was one that I hope Carter remembers for a long time. (I hope he will never know that Marc and I were actually gone for his real birthday.) We started out by delivering a thin piece of wood with all of the party info written on it to six of his friends. Most of them were able to come which made the party super fun. While we waited for the guests to all arrive, we played Bob the Builder memory game which I happened to have. After everyone showed up, we got geared up with hard hats and aprons filled with pencils, mini measuring tapes, and paint brushes. Once dressed, we constructed flowers from green pipe cleaners and tissue paper. We then ventured outside where the kids stuffed their flowers in the flower boxes on the cardboard house we had prepped only hours before. After they helped me glue construction paper shingles on the roof, the real fun began--they painted the house. When the house was just about covered in purple, brown, orange and green paint, we cleaned up and played construction cone bowling which worked up quite an appetite. We came inside for snacks served from a tool box and then sang Carter Happy Birthday before he blew out his four candles in his dirt dessert (complete with candy corn construction cones). There was a bit of excitement as we prepared to sing--I first lit the four candles, but then as I blew the match out, I blew out the candles--Brilliant. I lit them again and made sure to wave the match behind my back and away from the burning candles--Marc yelled at me that the match hadn't been extinguished yet, so I waved it again, not looking as Carter's friend's mom (my old BYU roomie) moved to blow it out. I ended up punching her in the nose--more brilliance! We opened presents after dessert and Carter got some great gifts--a spiderman, Lightening McQueen launcher, the Cars storage tire, a Cars puzzle, (yes, he still loves Cars!) a nerf dart gun, and a sprinkler hose. He was thrilled with all of his gifts and so are we. He hasn't asked for cartoons since he opened them over 24 hours ago! Once the gifts were unwrapped, we headed outside to the Cone Pinata I very poorly constructed the night before. The party got over a few minutes early which makes it very handy that our back fence has a gate that opens into a park. When the kids went home, we let Carter open a few gifts and cards from family--we got him a bike and a helmet and my parents got him a kids camelback--so cool! We also got him Dock Ock. We hope these new things and a busy play schedule will keep him mighty busy this summer! Carter's dinner wish was pizza, so we tried a new place up the road called Rotelli's. Yum. When we got home, I gave Carter his four year old interview (I copied you Jamie! After his Mother's Day interview, I couldn't help myself!)

Favorite color: Red (the first color out of his mouth was pink, then he listed a few more, when I told him to pick one, he finally settled on red to which Marc is very happy!)
Favorite food: quesadilla roll-up
Favorite toy: Launch Lightening McQueen & nerf gun (his new ones)
Favorite movie: Aladdin--it's a little scary (he never watches this movie)
Favorite outfit: red shirt wif nothing on it (he wore this camping the night before)
Favorite vacation: camping wif tent (he went to Father/Son camp out the night before)
Best Friends: Alex, Jaxson & spiderman
Favorite thing to do with Anderson: share (I'd like to see more of this being done!)
Favorite song: I am a Child of God
Wish for the year: have another birthday (after the party he had, of course he does!)

This morning when we tried his bike out, he was disappointingly timid. As I pushed Anderson in the stroller behind Marc who was pushing Carter, I had an epiphany--his timidness comes from me. Ooops. I guess since we've never had much of an area to ride in, he doesn't have much experience so for the next few weeks we'll be working on steering the bike. Then, we'll work on pedalling the bike. All the while, Marc and I will become expert cheerleaders for our son. Hopefully, in a month he'll have it down and think it's fun.