Carter is THREE!!
Carter is still severely addicted to Trains.... It actually is starting to worry me now lol so I decided to put the trains aside and do a Toy Story birthday party in hopes to "broaden his horizons" ... It was a fail... you'll see. He still loves his trains. We dressed Carter up as Buzz and Bentley as Woody.. they could not be any cuter!
And of course we had to add the little "ANDY" touch .. it just wouldn't be complete without it!
The day of the party started off really calm and relaxing.. just hanging out and taking our time.. and then.. all of a sudden everyone was coming over in just over an hour and the house was TRASHED... so my heart rate went up and I became.. "its game time mom" I don't know how we did it, but we did!
I decided to do something different with the party favours this time around. We had 10 kids and 2 little tiny babies coming over so instead of a goodie bag, I did smarties and stickers for the big kids and just little Baby Mum Mum's for the babies.. it was great! The kids loved it I think, no parents went home with weird little parties favours and it was SO MUCH CHEAPER than making bags!
The Kids were welcomed with the classic toy story drawing..
And our good Friend Woody was holding onto the outside balloons for us...
After Bentley's "Trash everything in the basement" birthday party, we decided not to have any kids go downstairs this time around so I had a couple little activites for them to do like... "Theres a snake in my boot" game... simple... throw the little dollarstore snake into the boot!
Some of the kids were really into it! And then we had a little colouring station for the kids! It was great!
Once everyone got to our house, we started opening the presents...Carter, once again, got SO MANY NEW TRAINS!
but the opening of the gifts soon became SO STRESSFUL for him! He was so scared that other kids were going to take his trains.. totally freaking out.. asking our friends, Matt and Kaylee, to keep his trains safe beside them on the couch and when that still didn't ease his mind.. he took them and hoarded them in the corner beside him lol
Poor Carter was a total stress case and SO RUDE.. when he would open a gift that wasn't a train.. or train something.. he would just push it aside and start looking for the next possible train gift... RUDE!! I kinda expected that would happen but still was hopeful it wouldn't.. but it did. Sorry to everyone who brought him an AWESOME gift .. we have played with them all since lol
Once all the gifts were opened.. Carter was Still totally freaking out about his new trains.. he didn't even want to do cake. It took a little bit for us to convince him that it was time to sing Happy Birthday and have cake.. but he was not impressed with his sparkler .. lol.. this party was going sideways.. and quickly!
After cake, he was relieved and took ALL his new trains and went upstairs into his bedroom and shut the door.. I left him for 5 minutes but then went up to see how he was doing... all his friends were still downstairs going nuts over all his "non-train" gifts ... When I walked into Carter's bedroom, he was quietly playing with his trains on his floor.. when I asked him how he was doing he replied "Good Mommy". I then said "Hey buddy, all your friends are still downstairs.. can you come down and play with them?" and he calmly responded "No thank you mommy, Carter's playing up here so good." lol I left him for a little bit again and then was able to get him to come down for a little bit. Auntie Lena & Uncle Jarren then came and so he got to open their gift...and I even HAD to warn him that it was NOT a train... he did pretty good.
Oh boy... is three year old the age to be rude? Probably right? Or is it just my boy? Maybe.... but hopefully not lol. After the party was "go-time" again! It was Brian's work Christmas party! We rushed to clean up from the party, feed and bath the boys and then quickly got dressed and rushed out the door!
We had a great night and got home around midnight. I was completely exhausted!! It was a crazy day! Thanks so much to my mom for watching our boys that night! We thought when we got home, we would just go to bed and hopefully feel refreshed in the morning.. but instead we caught Carter playing trains in his room at 2AM!!! We put him back to bed only to be woken up at 4am by little Carter's face right in mine saying in the most excited voice "WANNA PLAY TRAINS WITH ME!?" I could not believe it.. I put him back to bed but I'm pretty sure he was awake playing with his new trains from 2-4 in the morning and then up at 6 to play with them some more.. I was going to go crazy! Of course that sunday was a disaster! He was so tired... obviously! This continued for 3 nights in a row... even when we took all the trains out of his room the very next night we caught him multiple times sneaking out of his room to find his trains in the basement.. this boy is like a ninja!! SOOOOOOO quiet... sooooo Sneaky!
But last night.. he slept from 7:30pm-7:15am.. thank goodness! We all needed it and it made this birthday day so much nicer to feel so refreshed in the morning! We had a fun morning.. playing trains... thats all we EVER do.. just incase you didn't catch that hahaha... for lunch.. Carter requested his favourite... "Cheese Noodles".. with Hank (the train) of course!
After lunch, I dropped Bentley off with his Grandma Reed and Carter and I went on a Mommy & Carter date! We went to the cheap theatre to watch Despicable Me 2! This was Carter's very first Theatre movie! How fun is that!! We had a great time.. starting off with some "selfies" lol I love this boy!!!
The movie was great! I wasn't sure if he would last the entire movie but I wasn't worried about it.... We bought our tickets... some popcorn and candies and completely indulged together... he it totally one of my favourite people to go to a movie with! He sat in his cute little booster seat beside me and we shared all our treats... I WAS IN HEAVEN! He made it through 3/4 of the movie sitting in his own chair and the last 1/4 of the movie he came and cuddled up on my lap (YES PLEASE!) .. he was totally still happy to be there.. but just wanted to sit with me... *insert happiest mother in the world right here* lol
Once the movie was over, we went to go pick up Bentley.. poor Carter wasn't ready for our date to be over... but we had to get Bentley and pick up Brian from work. We got Bri and took Carter out to dinner at Joeys .. him and Bentley were really good! Thankfully! We came home and had cupcakes for desert.
I love singing this kid Happy Birthday.. how fun!
He ate that cupcake like no ones business and then it was time.... it was time to open our gift to him. Now... here's a little background... Carter has been BEGGING us for the train named "Molly" for MONTHS.. like probably 6 months (at least!) so about 6 months ago we ordered it from Japan (because you can't buy her here) and have been saving it for this special day for that long! We had also bought the train named "Stephen" which he also really wanted (not as much as Molly of course) and we had planned on saving the "Stephen" train for Christmas BUT.. after his birthday party we decided it would be better to give both the trains to him for his birthday and then ZERO trains for Christmas.. like NOTHING trains... just because if he gets even one train.. every other gift won't be as good. Plus.. we have thousands of dollars worth of trains for him and lets just be honest.... thats ridiculous!
Soo... First, he opened our card... a zoo train card.. he LOVED it.. because it was a train lol
Then he pulled out the Stephen train first... this was his reaction...
And then... (drum roll please..) he realized there was another train in the bag...
And there she was... the love of his life.... Molly...
The rest of the evening was history! He played with Stephen and Molly and kept telling us "Her is so special, Her is so special" "she's beautiful" lol it was simply adorable!
And all while this was happening.. Bentley was enjoying his cupcake lol and probably telling me "Mommy! Stop with the pictures!"
Bentley went straight into the tub.. he was a disaster! Plus he got two more eye teeth today which makes for a kinda cranky baby and a total of 15 teeth now!! Crazy that at 12 months old, he nearly has ALL his teeth!
Bath time with Bentley is always so much fun.. he is so chill and just go with the flow.. tonight I made him into baby elvis.. His Grandpa Gardiner would be so proud of him lol
Yep, he is just adorable!
All in all we have had an incredible week celebrating one of the biggest blessings of our life. Carter. He is so full of life... love and spunk! He always says the sweetest things like.. "Mommy, you are beautiful" and this morning when I woke up.. and looked like a total disaster is baggie jammies and not showered yet.. he came up to me and said "Mommy... you are a princess" Where did he even get that from!? Oh my gosh CUTE!
He also says things "I don't like you so much!" when he is mad at me.. then I tell him.. "well then I can't play with you anymore.. or then we can't go to the park today" and he immediately will say "I'm so sorry.. Carter no say that ever again" lol Still SO CUTE!
I can still remember giving birth to Carter. How painful it was but also how much I focused on his little heart beat and knowing that within minutes I would be meeting my baby. What a miracle! And now, three years later I am still feeling like I am the luckiest mommy in the world.
Carter brings me so much stress somedays and SO MUCH love other days. He tests all my patience and sometimes makes me want to take a mommy vacation.. but then one minute later, he will give me a hug or tell me I am his princess and I immediately reevaluate my thinking. He is my little boy... he is my everything.. and will always be!
Carter, you make us so so happy. Your smile, your kisses and hugs.. your EVERYTHING. I can't believe you are three already. I am so looking forward to this year with you.. watching you learn and grow.. teaching you new things and going on new adventures with you. I cannot even imagine my life without you in it. You will always be my very first baby. You taught me what ture love of a child really is. You taught me more patience than I ever thought I would ever had or needed. You teach me new things everyday and I can honestly say that even on hard days, when we sneak into your room before we go to bed to kiss you goodnight, it fills my soul with all the love of a mother for her child and I feel whole.
Happy 3rd Birthday! I love you Carter Herbert Reed!