Happy Birthday Carter!

It's official! Carter is 2 years old! The birthday party was a big success, thanks in part to good weather. We invited a ton of people and being able to go outside made all the difference. We were so happy to share the event with all our friends and family, but for those of your who couldn't make it (or if you're just interested in the party details), here's the low-down...

Decorations

The theme was transportation. Planes, trains, and automobiles are all favorite toys for Carter so I tried to incorporate all of them into the party. I hung sky blue and white balloons (no helium) from the ceiling to make it look like the sky. Then I put my grade school skill of folding paper airplanes to use and hung some of those from the ceiling too. For a tablecloth, I ordered a bunch of transportation die-cuts from Little Extras, and arranged them randomly on top of a sky blue tablecloth. Then on top of all, I laid a huge piece of vinyl (available at fabric stores) to hold the die-cuts in place and make for easy cleanup.

Activity

You gotta have something for a bunch of kids to DO at a party, right? Since we had kids of various ages attending, I thought long about an activity that everyone could do. Something easy for little kids, but also fun for the older ones. I decided on The Great Paper Airplane Contest, with prizes for the best decorated and the best in flight. I gave the kids prefolded planes which they covered with stickers and decorated with crayons. Then they threw them off the top of the deck outside to test their flight skills. I designed the prize boxes in Adobe Illustrator.

Cake

I was inspired by Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. For the middle cupcakes, I made red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Then I used royal icing to make the letters. On the outside, I had chocolate chip cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting. I added a yellow dashed line and gummie cars to make it look like a road. The cupcakes turned out okay...maybe a little dry. But I had baked them the day before the party so maybe that had something to do with it. Both frostings were very tasty though!

Goodie Bags

I received many compliments on the goodie bags, but I have to come clean here. The idea was not mine to claim. I found the idea here and made mine to be pretty similar. The suitcases were made from cereal boxes, spray painted brown and embellished with yellow bands and travel stickers. The luggage tags were my own creation (Illustrator again) though. They turned out great and tied in nicely with the theme. The guests picked them up from the "Baggage Claim" table as they left.

More photos can be seen on Facebook. Click this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=225952&id=1012296258&l=68d16c6c42

Month of Milestones

This has definitely been a month of highs and lows...and it's only half over!

Highs
Nora has mastered the skill of rolling over. It's practically an automatic response if you lay her flat on her back. She seems to like the view of the world from there since she'll sit there for a while before getting frustrated. Unlike Carter who cried immediately after roll over.

Carter has finally talked! I was beginning to worry a little. Within a 24 hour period, he said "Ma-ma", "Da-da", and he sort of counted to three. He still mainly jabbers in his nonsensical language, but if I say, "Can you say Ma-ma?" he nearly always replies with a smile. It's so cute and also weird...before my eyes, he's becoming a different little boy than the one I've known.

Carter's birthday party is in a couple weeks! It's been fun planning and getting things ready for the big celebration. We're going with a transportation theme since Carter is obsessed with all things vehicular. We've been practicing blowing out candles, but he's too interested in the flame to actually blow it out. Typical boy I guess. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to post later.

Nora had her 4-month checkup and she is the picture of a healthy baby. She weighs 15 lbs 14 oz (92%) and measures 25.5 inches (91%). She's a chunk. I continuously hear phrases like "She's a good eater, isn't she?" from complete strangers.

Lows
The last couples days have been rough since Carter contracted a case of croup. It was a bit scary at first when he had such a high fever (104F!), but after a couple days he is mostly back to his normal self. We did go to the emergency room when the fever spiked just to be safe. It was the first time to the ER for one of our kids...really tough to see my little guy listless in a huge hospital bed. But the news was good and he's on the mend now.

We think Nora might be teething. After several weeks of blissful sleeping through the night, she now wakes 1-2 times and also seems crankier than her normal self. We can just barely see the whites of her teeth beneath the surface so we might be in for a few more sleepless nights.

Couple new pictures posted on facebook. See the link in the previous posts.