Happy Birthday, Carter!

Carter is 5! We've been counting down the days until his birthday for a VERY long time, so it was nice that it finally arrived! Carter is kind of the pulse of our family. He seems to have the most enthusiasm, curiosity, animation, and drive of all the kids. The others may like something, but he seems to bring the passion into it. His excitement about life often exhausts me and he can frustrate me to the point of tears, but he also has the ability to make me happy faster than anyone else. His cute little face can work wonders...especially when he bats his long, beautiful eyelashes. He has the brightest eyes and an extremely contagious laugh. His sense of smell can rival any canine's. One of his most common phrases is "What's that I smell?" said either with delight or disgust - the latter often to our embarrassment. His gift of smell is usually pretty funny, unless he is smelling his cup before he drinks from it (it always smells clean to me!) or holding his nose all through breakfast while I eat my Malt-O-Meal. Whatever his quirks, I love that he's apart of our family!

This year he wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday. I had found a pan at a garage sale several months ago and he discovered it when we were unpacking. I was thrilled. It was much easier than all of the other ideas he had been coming up with.

Eric had call on Carter's Birthday, so we blew out the candles and ate cake the night before.

Fortunately, Eric didn't have to leave until 8:30a (doesn't happen very often!) so he was able to take Carter to pick up some donuts and spend a little time with him on his birthday morning.

Carter got all kinds of "totally awesome" things. He was very excited about most of them.

We actually didn't get much response out of the bicycle, which was completely baffling and a bit disappointing. Fortunately, he enjoyed it more once we forced him on it before Eric had to leave for work. We also got him a "Big Book of Experiments" that is saving my life!

As soon as Daddy was gone, we loaded in the car and headed to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Isaac had the day off of school for teacher inservice, so we thought we'd party it up. We met Grandma and Grandpa there and had a great time, even with the heat. His favorite part was the "Dinosaur Dig." Paleontologist is high on his list of future careers.

He got to touch a lizard (can't remember it's actual name) and a snake. Good times! Apparently Ashlyn touched the snake, too. She was with Grandma, so I followed the boys since I figured she'd cower once she got closer anyway and I totally missed it!

After the museum, we ate lunch at McDonald's and then left without a single complaint to the big event - the fire station! We had gone to Lowe's "Build and Grow" workshop the Saturday before. We built firetrucks and then they had an engine outside for the kids to see. The firefighters were asking Carter some basic questions about some of their equipment when he decided to get down to the real stuff. They were surprised to hear him ask about "the jaws of life" and got even more tickled when he patted their generator and asked if that was their power unit. He continued to awe them with his fire engine knowledge until they invited him to their fire station so that the junior firefighter could follow him around for a couple of days. We did take them up on their offer and I set it up for his birthday, which was the highlight of his day.

If I ever wonder if he had a good birthday, all I have to do is look at this picture of him spraying the fire hose - pure bliss!

We weren't there too long before the last team got called out. Carter was pretty disappointed that we had to leave, but fortunately there was a firefighter "on leave" that was there, so he let us look around a few more minutes.

Grandpa lifted the boys up so they could slide down a real firefighter's pole.

I'm glad that we were all able to go. I think Cindy enjoyed it as much as Carter did!

After the station, we went back home to open Carter's present from Grandma and Grandpa. Tools! Building kits! Hooray!

Grandpa helped him build his tool box before they had to go home.

I think he was starting to get a little pictured out!

We ended the day with bike riding, friends over for pizza, and as much PBS as he wanted. We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but it was worth it. Happy Birthday, Carter!