For two weeks leading up to Carter's birthday, we were out of town visiting Daniel's family in Utah and then visiting Maren in California. And with vacation brain, I didn't realize that Carter's birthday was on Monday until it was Thursday. (I knew it was that week, but I thought it was in the middle of the week.) We had been planning on driving from California to Utah on Saturday, taking a day to rest and hang out with Karen's family, and then driving the rest of the way home on Monday. But I felt awful having Carter spend his birthday bored in the car, and we were ready to get home anyway. So we drove two days in a row and got home the night before his birthday.
Thankfully, the presents I ordered for Carter on Thursday made it there the day before his birthday. So after the kids went to bed, we wrapped presents and ran to the store to get balloons, Lucky Charms (his favorite cereal), and stuff to make some of his favorite foods. I also made the batter for our traditional birthday Swedish pancakes.
In the morning, Carter came and snuggled me in bed like he always does. It's my favorite. Then we went downstairs, where his presents were waiting for him on the table, along with his balloons, cereal, and a sign that said, "Happy Birthday, Carter!"
He couldn't wait to open his presents until after breakfast, obviously, so we did that first. (Side note: My phone's camera sucks, so most of my pictures are blurry. It's better than nothing though, I suppose.)
Aubrey insisted he open hers first. She got him the Owl Glider from PJ Masks. He's been asking for it for quite awhile.
Then he opened the stomp rockets we got for him.
He was excited!
Finally, he opened the helicopter transformer we got him. I love his face here! (Also, he named it Helicopteree before finding out its real name is Blade.)
While the pancakes were cooking, Carter tested out his new toys.
We finally got him to eat some pancakes... sort of. He was pretty distracted. He chose purple for the batter color. I think he was just copying what Aubrey chose for her last birthday. But Daniel made him this cool birthday cake pancake, which I thought was fun.
Then we got ready and headed to the park to launch the stomp rockets. We let Carter and Aubrey test it out at home by pressing the launch pad with their hands, but we wanted to get out in the open air so they could stomp on it and really make the rockets go far. Carter's first attempt was awesome! Only...
... he missed it. So yeah, jerky reaction. It really bugged me. But it is pretty funny that he didn't even see how far it went. He did at least calm down right after this video, and watching Daniel do it made him very excited.
So then he was ready to try again. I love his wind-up!
Because it was Carter's birthday, we let the kids play at the park for awhile. There were just a few other kids there that we actually know from church, so... *shrug*
We then stopped at the school to get lunch for the kids (Yay, free lunch!) and headed back home. I made Carter take a photo with his balloons, with the intention of getting a better photo later but also knowing I probably wouldn't get around to it. (Spoiler alert: I didn't.) They were tied to one of the kitchen chairs, so it was hard to get a good shot. And the background shows our messy house. But hey, again, better than nothing! (I think that's starting to become my motto...)
It was much easier to get just the balloons...
We then let the kids watch a movie while I baked the cake and made the frosting. Carter chose Hercules. When it was over, he decorated his cake. He chose orange for the frosting. (And yes, he's not wearing pants. He pretty much never does unless we make him.)
Then he wanted to do a heart in sprinkles (which is what he did on the mini cake he got to help me decorate for Aubrey's birthday). He used all the colors of the rainbow!
And here's the finished product (with some help from Mommy)!
His face! Love.
After dinner (pasta with homemade rosemary focaccia bread dipped in Carter's favorite thing--oil and vinegar), we let him place the candles in his cake.
Then we sang.
And, of course, then we ate cake! Carter mostly ate the frosting, as usual. Then he said, "Look! I can balance my fork on my finger. Because I'm four!" Hehe.
All in all, it was a good day. Carter didn't have any big meltdowns, and he said multiple times that it was a great day or the best day ever. That made me happy.
Happy birthday, Carter! Oh, and STOP GROWING! K, thanks.
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