I'm ONE!!


Carter turned one on Tuesday, it's so hard to believe a whole year has gone by since his birth. To celebrate the big event, we had two parties for him last weekend. One party he shared with his cousin, Elsa, who turned one on Wednesday. His second party was for our friends and Dave's family.


Party 1: Elsa and Carter party. Aunt Lee did all the fun decorations for the Elsa / Carter party. She made really cute invitations (each baby had their own) with a fish and frog theme. For their cake we did fish and frog cupcakes - Lee did all the fun decorations for those as well! Grandma B. and Grandpa P. graciously hosted the party at their house. Other guests included Grandpa and Grandma J., Cheryl, Abby, Joey, Aunt Nancy, and Mary and Alan Jones. We had such a good time with both babies together, it is so special that they share such close birthdays!

I think the highlight of the party was of course cake eating time. Dave and I thought Carter would dig right in and get totally messy, we even stripped him down to his diaper to be ready...but Carter did not want anything to do with the cupcake once he tried it! Elsa on the other hand loved her cupcake and ate anything that didn't fall into her lap.

The wonderful party set-up. Thanks Aunt Lee for the awesome decorations!

The fish and frog cupcakes.



Carter testing out his new chair Aunt Lee and Uncle Bob found him in Milwaukee.

Elsa wearing her cute hat.

Present time!

Carter got this cool truck from Elsa, Aunt Lee, and Uncle Bob...it makes cool noises and lights up.

Dave and I bought Carter this "bounce and spin zebra" which he proudly showed off.

Here's Carter dumping off the zebra (his way of getting off) and Elsa giving it a try.

Carter also got tons of other cool presents that are not shown. Thank you to everyone for all the cool new toys, Carter loves them!!

Cake time!

The first pokes...

Spitting it out...

Trying a few more bites...as you can see Elsa is loving her cupcake.

Deciding cake is not all it's cracked up to be.

Party 2: Dinosaur party. I searched high and low for a bakery that would make me a 3-D dinosaur cake...but nothing ever panned out. So Dave and I took it upon ourselves to try our own cake. We found some hints on-line and Dave even drew the patterns on autocad before we actually started cutting and molding the cake. It wasn't a spectacular cake but we were pretty proud of ourselves and we had a lot of fun doing it the night before his party!

We had so many family and friends come to the party, it was a huge success and Carter was spoiled with all the attention and gobs of presents. Originally we wanted to have it outside on our deck, but it was a rainy day so we improvised and had it in our basement. The kids had fun playing with all the toys - Carter is lucky to have so many kids his age to play with already! We are so grateful for everyone who came and celebrated with us - thank you!

Drew and Kayley Burke with Carter.

Kayley helping Carter open some presents.

More presents!

Daddy putting together his cool new basketball hoop.

Cake again?

This time he ate a tiny bit but he's still not a fan.

Hmmm, nope, still don't like it...

Sean showing Carter how to put the balls into the animal's mouth.

Uncle Mark and Carter.

Uncle Josh and Carter.

Grandma Webb and Carter.

Carter received so many cool presents I can't even name them all. He loves everything and goes from toy to toy when he gets them all out to play. Below are some pictures of the Radio Flyer scooter that Meredith and Mike got him...he thought it was very cool when he figured out how to push himself around!

Thank you everyone for making Carter's first birthday so incredibly special.