July 16 was Carter’s birthday party. He wanted to play laser tag, but it took some looking to find a place that allows kids under 48 inches to play. Finally we found LaserWhirld and it was perfect for our party.

Carter is obsessed with mustaches. He loves them and wears the stick-on kind every chance he gets. I found a whole sheet of them for him to hand out at his party. Most of the kids put them on for at least a little while — it was hilarious!

Caleb, Carter, and Spencer sporting their ‘staches!

Once everyone arrived, they geared up for a round of laser tag.

Jack, Gunner, Carter, Spencer, and Caleb

The second time around, all the dads joined them. Carter loved playing with “Bob” — that’s what he calls his dad. It’s short for “Bob the Troll,” a name that Carter and Raine came up with for one of their plays. Carter religiously calls him “Bob” now, it is super odd in a hilarious sort of way.

Daddy, Spencer, Carter, and Jack

Gunner, Caleb, Jack, Caleb, Spencer, and Carter

After laser tag, the kids had pizza and gatorade (another of Carter’s favorites).

Next was cake.

Carter wouldn’t smile for me, he doesn’t like being the center of attention and he was getting a little goofy.

Opening presents was a group effort.

Spencer, Ben, Carter, Jack, and Gunner

They played a few video games, then everyone left. It was an awesome party!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of everyone. Evan and Jay managed to avoid my shutter.

July 12, Carter turned the big 6. DJ and I both skipped work so that we could celebrate all day long!

We started the day with Carter’s breakfast of choice: breakfast burritos.

After a little playing outside with the neighbors, we headed to LifeTime for a swim.

Carter thought it was cool that he could pick up his dad in the pool.

The library had a clown show at 2:00, so we went over after lunch.

Carter loves clown-humor. He is a bit of a clown himself a lot of the time.

Next stop was Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner.

I couldn’t get Carter to stand in front of the sign outside with Raine. He finally agreed once we were inside though.

Finally, it was time for presents…

Daddy and I gave Carter a (much needed) punching bag for his birthday. He LOVED it.

…and cake.

Carter has been scared of fire ever since “fire-safety day” in preschool. He got up out of his seat when DJ came to light the candles and it took a little convincing to get him to sit down so close to the flaming cake.

Current stats:
45.6 lbs
47.5 inches (so close to 4 feet; he grew almost 3 inches in the past year)

Carter is such a fun kid to have around. He is incredibly shy but deals with it by being goofy. He is a homebody and loves to make-believe with figurines (jungle animals, dinosaurs, pokemon, minecraft). He is always engaged in some sort of epic battle.

Carter is a good student, very obedient (in class, not always at home :), and a great little swimmer. He loves to cuddle up to read and has made some good progress in his reading abilities.

We recently came to the realization that Carter gets very hangery. When his blood sugar drops, he turns into a little hellion. It has made a huge difference to know this; now, instead of trying to manage the behavior, we simply feed him!

We really love this cute nut!

The 4th of July started early. Around 4:30 a.m. mother nature put on a spectacular fireworks show — lighting up the sky with rapid-fire streaks of lightning and booming thunder. Carter climbed into our bed at some point.

We headed to the Ward picnic at 8:30 and enjoyed a yummy breakfast. Last minute, Raine remembered that they were having a bike parade, so we threw on some ribbon and tissue paper. Carter didn’t want to participate.

Raine and Cambrie

Carter tried to catch water balloons. Fortunately, he didn’t catch any!

Later that afternoon we packed up our towels and headed to Lake Lewisville. We had a picnic, then rented a boat to tube the lake.

Both kids wanted to ride with Mom first, to make sure it was okay.

Mom and Raine

Mom and Carter

Carter also wanted to give it a whirl with Dad.

Once they were comfortable, they both hopped on and spent the rest of the time on the tube.

Family selfie.

It was great weather to be out on the lake. The evening was more than warm enough to enjoy the water, but we didn’t feel like we were being baked alive under the sun. Here are a few other neat photos of the sky with the kids riding down below.

We headed for home about 8:00 and as soon as we pulled into the garage, Carter wanted to know why we didn’t see any fireworks. Raine has always hated fireworks and we were up so early in the morning that I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds in order to watch a fireworks show. Fortunately, Carter was easily pacified with the promise of our own party with glow-sticks, poppers (the only legal “fireworks” around here) and, most importantly, FatBoy ice cream sandwiches!

Mother nature started another impressive fireworks display shortly after mid-night. Needless to say, we all had a hard time waking up Tuesday morning!