(Above) Nathan and Carter the day Carter was born - Nathan not to sure about this deal. (Below) Nathan and Carter after the party, they are truly the best buds and love having adventures together.
First of all, following up on my last post, I want to thank those of you who said hello via a comment who usually don't - especially my wonderful mother. I even took her advice and changed my blog background back to a lighter color so reading my blog won't cause her to have to up her reading glasses perscription = ).
On April 10th Carter turned 3! We built it up for days, and being the middle child, I wanted him to have an extra special day that was all about him. Even Nathan caught on and insisted we called him "birthday boy" all day long and bowed to most of the birthday boy privileges (going first at things mostly).
My parents did a fantastic job growing up making birthdays magical. We woke up and came downstairs and the house was decorated with streamers and balloons, a birthday tablecloth or centerpiece and a present waiting for you at your spot at the table. You knew right away people remembered your birthday and it was a special day to them. So, I have always tried to follow suit. I stayed up late to ensure he had that magic to wake up to and get everything ready for the birthday party.
It was worth it. He loved the decorations and got his first present (the one and only toy from mom and dad - a toy microphone as he and Nathan love to sing). Then we headed quickly to the store to grab one or two last things for the party, in addition to birthday chocolate milk and donuts (two rarities in our house except for special occasions!) and got ready for the party guests to arrive.
Carter chose a spiderman themed birthday party. He luckily has a small group of friends his age, so we invited all 6 of them and were excited they could all make it. We did a spiderman placemat craft while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we did a spiderman "cake" walk - where you walk around on numbers and when the music stops you stop and whoever is standing on the number that is chosen wins a cake. Except, they walked around on spiderman bad guy pictures (since no one knows their numbers really yet) to the original spiderman theme song and got a piece of candy if they won.
Or that was how it was supposed to work. Quickly each little guy found their "favorite" bad guy and didn't want to walk around, just stand on it. Except for Nathan and a few other rule abiders who tried to keep walking. But then they got annoyed by the ones who weren't walking and some shoving ensued. We quickly went through several rounds, distracting them by doing the game and quickly getting to the candy prizes.
Next we pinned spiderwebs on the spiderman poster, which went surprisingly well and each kid took about two turns, even allowing themselves to be blindfolded.
By then it was time for lunch. The kids played with toys as I got out Carter's chosen birthday lunch - popcorn chicken, doritos, strawberries, spiderman fruit snacks, and juice boxes. Most kids had a well balanced diet of chips, fruit snacks, and a little juice.
After lunch the troops were restless and I needed to clean up before we could open presents. This whole time all the kids were begging to watch a movie. I don't know if that is a regular birthday party activity these days, but I hadn't planned it in. So, we hopped onto Utube and grabbed a classic spiderman cartoon (short - 10 min- and no violence) which tided everyone over until it was time for cupcakes and presents.
Carter loved all is presents and opened them with a great cupcake mustache. I had to laugh as it took us almost 5 minutes to sing and blow out the candles because all the little boys wouldn't stop blowing out the candles and not letting Carter do it (which of course made the birthday boy upset). He finally got to blow out 1 of the 3 candles and we called it good and distracted with presents.
That night we met up with Matt for dinner at McDonalds as one of our last birthday treats and then went swimming at the YMCA, one of our favorite family activities. Nathan got into the car afterwards and said, "I hope my birthday is as special as Carters!" I hope Carter felt the same way. We love you Carter! You are such a little firecracker for our family!
3 comments:
It sounds like you were able to man the party very well. I felt bad leaving you with that many little boys when I dropped my boys off. That was before I knew you had another capable adult helper at the party.
A successful birthday for a fun, spiderman-loving kid.
The look on Nathan's face in that first picture is PRICELESS! His world has just been rocked. Hilarious :)
Way to go SuperMom! You are so creative and resourceful and so good at making birthdays special! Have I mentioned lately I want to be like you when I grow up?
The whole fighting over the bad guys thing and blowing Carter's candles out over and over made me laugh outloud! - boys are just too predictable! I want to celebrate my birthday at your house. But only girls.
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