T Minus One Month

Someone has a birthday coming up…ok, two someones have a birthday coming up but this post is about Carter (surprise, surprise). For those of you who are new here, baby C was born ten days early on March 5th which also happens to be my birthday! Anyway, in just one month our little baby will be turning one and the preparations for his party are well underway. I finally finished hand making all of the invitations, got them stamped and mailed, and now can’t wait to get the RSVPs! I could not find a single premade invitation that I liked or that I felt was special enough for Carter’s first birthday and was inspired to create my own when I stumbled across this funky scrapbook birthday paper and 3-D stickers online.

I traveled the forty minutes to our local scrapbooking store to stock up on supplies only to find out that they carried the brand I was looking for but not that particular birthday line! What a bummer. Thank goodness for the internet though because I was able to find a site that sold the paper, stickers, and all coordinating items in bulk! I ordered their entire inventory just in case. It only took a week to get everything in and I was off to work. I created the actual invitation on my now dead desktop computer. It was the only computer in our house old enough to run my favorite photo editing software (Microsoft PictureIt from 1997). It was a sad, sad day in our house when the stupid thing wouldn’t turn on but thankfully the invites were already in production so at least I got one last project out of that beast of a computer!

The invite is printed on 4x6 matte photo paper and then matted on a 5x7 piece of scrapbook paper. I also attached a 3-D cake that pops off the invitation thanks to a metal spring! There are twelve different background papers and none of the invitations are exactly alike. I also included an insert that tells family and friends where Carter has his birthday wish list! I made address labels with the cake sticker on my computer too so even the envelopes are coordinating! I am really happy with how they turned out and can’t wait to see the rest of the party come together. Is it too early to hang up the streamers??

And just for fun- here is a picture of bubs now and from a year ago!

Yogurt Aftermath

Well, self feeding is definitely a messy experience and pretty much every meal results in having to strip Carter down to his diaper and washing him from head to toe! This particular day there was yogurt in his ear, between his toes, and stuck to his eyelashes. Oh well! He has to learn somehow ;) Of course I had to pull out my camera to document the experience and thankfully C was in a cooperative mood to pose!

Self-Feeding

Carter has been very interested in feeding himself recently. I don’t normally use “baby” utensils with him though so when he started grabbing at the forks and spoons I was feeding him with, I knew it was time to switch back to the littler ones! The other day he was eating breakfast and after a few bites practically wrestled the spoon out of my hand. I showed him how to dip the spoon into the bowl and then put it in his mouth. I was surprised how successful C was after a few attempts and he almost polished off the whole thing of yogurt. He may have made an incredibly huge mess, but he was so proud!

Oops! Wrong end!

Uh oh!!! Yogurt in the eye!!

“It hurts! It hurts! Well…Ok…I guess it’s not that bad…”

The Park in January

When we were surprised with temperatures in the 60s the whole family made sure to take advantage of outside time! Linc and I had a tennis match on Sunday and while waiting for our turn to play we took Carter over to the playground. The boys had fun going down the slide, climbing the monkey bars, and crawling around on the jungle gym. Our friend Garrett also drove up to visit and show off his new motorcycle! It was such a beautiful weekend and as much as I love winter, we were very thankful to finally be outside enjoying the fresh air!

That 70s Party

On Saturday night Linc and I got dressed up in Hippie garb to attend our friend Bill’s 40^th birthday party! His wife Shari (from the Baby Brigade) had planned an amazing surprise party for him complete with costumes, disco inspired decorations, and a black jack table with dealer! Shari had been planning this party for weeks and was so worried that Bill had caught on, but the party went off without a hitch and everyone had a blast. Linc won the award for best costume and I was so proud!! It will definitely go down as one of the best parties we have been to and it was extra fun because it was the first time Linc and I had left Carter with a babysitter since he was born almost 11 months ago…Sure, it was my sister, but that was a huge deal for me! I was an anxious wreck but baby C did amazing and slept the whole time we were gone. Maybe now I’ll be willing to go out on more dates instead of just playing tennis!