Carter's birthday started out with pancakes and smoothies for breakfast before school. My favorite thing about our birthday breakfast tradition is the look of joy on the face of the child whose birthday it is not when they give the birthday child a gift. Teaching children to be generous and unselfish can be difficult but these little moments add up in a lifetime. This picture shows my point.
We got Carter a lamp for his bed to read at night and he has used it every night since!
William covered in breakfast.
Carter decided he wanted to go ice skating for his birthday. This year we decided he could invite a few friends to join him. He chose his good friend, Sam and his "best cousin," Ryan. Here are the three of them elated for ice skating:
(Sam's sister and Claire's good friend, Lucy, is just as excited in the background)
Before we could ice skate, though, we had pizza and this cute cake.
I asked my mom to help with the cake because I knew I wouldn't have time to make one myself and she went to a lady in her ward who made this ice skating cake which, I might add, was delicious!
And, there were presents to open as well.
Carter insisted on inviting Monique, a very special young woman who occasionally helps out our family, to his party. Daniel and I have a few hour overlap when I work and Monique watches the kids. She is such a sweetheart and we are sad she is leaving to WA next month but excited for her (thankfully, she has a younger sister who can take over for her:) )
With Lucy and Sam
Cute cousins, who both look so, so sweet in the picture! Ryan is wearing a helmet for ice skating, BTW:)
Ella and Carter with Claire and Lucy getting in on the photo as well!
Carter with Nana. Boppy was busy during the party but took Carter out for a birthday lunch earlier in the day and gave him his first set of golf clubs. They are so cute and we are excited for him to try them out.
Grandma and Papa got Carter his first pair of roller skates and he has been a roller skating maniac since then! Well, he doesn't really skate...but he rolls a little.
The boys took the ice with super trooper Daniel. I give him props, I would have definitely fallen especially trying to help the boys! They all hit the ice more times than we could count, but there were no tears. These are some tough boys!
I really didn't get any great shots of Carter, but he had a great time. He thought he was going to be able to go out there and skate with no problem. Instead, he fell a million times and refused help as much as possible. By the end, he literally crawled off the ice! He loved it though, and wants to do it again. Ryan and Sam both started off a bit more timid than Carter but ended up skating well by the end!
We are so grateful for friends and family who join us on the journey of raising this sweet boy, Carter. Here's six of his greatest attributes:
--he is SMART!
--he is CURIOUS!
--he is THOUGHTFUL!
--he is KIND!
--he is HELPFUL!
--he is CUTE!
Melissa & Jeremy with Noah in hand Maddie in tummy:)
Uncle Eric & Aunt Sydnee
Kollin & Asher--such cute boys
We love him and are so blessed to have him as our oldest child. Thank you to all of our family and friends who are not pictured here (Julians, Alemans, Brobergs, Ottosens, etc.) who made his birthday special. So, despite the weather, thanks to everyone who came and helped us make Carter's day special.
