Blast Off to Carter's 7th Birthday Party

One of our most frequent fun activities in recent months has been visiting the Space and Rocket Center.  All four kids LOVE it, so it was no surprise when Carter requested an outerspace party

Our original plan was to have a really big inflatable obstacle course in the backyard and some games, but as we got closer and closer to party day the weather was looking horrible for his party-tornadoes forecasted and heavy rain.

SO two days before the party we totally switched gears.  We kept the requested space theme, but we moved it indoors to Cheerville where they have foam pits, trampolines, an big inflatable, etc. Although this was not the original plan, it honestly ended up being just as fun! Carter had an absolute blast and that's what matters!

Here's our big birthday 7 year old before his party with his birthday shirt I made him and his birthday chalk board.

He was so excited to go jump in the foam pit, he just HAD to demonstrate during the photo!

All about our sweet 7 year old.

The inflatable was an obstacle course...everyone LOVED it!

That's Carter on the left coming down the slide and a friend from school on the right coming down the slide...probably one of the friends he talks about the most.

Then that's Nora Kate and Clayton attempting to break the rules and climb up the middle.

Nora Kate takes gymnastics at this gym, so she insisted on wearing her gymnastics outfit to the party.

By the end of the party, Clayton was relaxing on gymnastics mat-HAH!

...until the sugar from the cookie cake got him wound up again!

Nora Kate with Annie

Carter with another school friend!

These two had fun standing on this "island" in the foam pit launching foam at me and others!

We kept it pretty simple and did pizza and chips....and STAR BURSTS since it was a space party.

Then cookie cake for dessert!

His sweet friends got him lots of presents which he loved.

The party room before all the kids came in starving from all their playing on the gym floor!

The party favors were space related.

They were bags of SPACE JUNK-a milky way, several starbursts, and a moon pie of course!

Carter was excited to open his gifts.

The group picture!

(there are a couple kids missing from this picture, but this was most of the crew)

Carter and his buddies had an awesome time!  They all played so hard!  They laughed and all honestly had the best time!

The morning of Carter's birthday Carter was still in his pjs and ready to open gifts from John and I, his siblings, and Nana and Grandad.

He is loving his big present from us-his electric scooter!

This sis slightly blurry but I love what is going on here.  The kids have been AMAZING at doing their chores the last few months, and now that they have money they love buying siblings gifts.  SO sweet! Dawson, especially, always wants to use his money.  Dawson thoughtfully purchased Altoids for Carter (which he loves) and another piece of Candy.  He was so happy to give it to Carter.

On Carter's birthday we spent the day as a family going to a couple of his favorite places.  We went to the Space and Rocket Center (and bonus! it was a special day there it was the 25th annual Moon Rover Challenge so we got to cheer for and watch participants which was SO cool), and then we went to this place downtown that has old arcade games (think PacMan and Mrs. PacMan and Fix It Felix) and ate lunch and played games.  Such a fun day celebrating our sweet, sweet 7 year old!

Carter is Seven

Our funny, caring, kind, considerate, fun-loving, energetic, brown-eyed, strong, sweet Carter turned SEVEN Saturday!  It's hard to believe yet another year has passed and that Carter's another year older, he has continued to amaze us this year!  Carter has a great personality.  He's very caring and outgoing and he really enjoys being around others and having friends!  He loves "knowing" people-like when he can point out friends or teachers that I don't know when we are out shopping, and he always makes sure to say hello.  He loves this.  He has always been very much a people person, and I hoped that making him change schools (let alone states, houses, etc) after finishing his kindergarten year, wouldn't make him less comfortable with himself, shy, or nervous-and I shouldn't have worried at all.  Carter has seemed to absolutely love knowing more about his school than me, learning his way around his (really) big school, and experiencing all the newness and just figuring it out.  He quickly made friends on his soccer team, basketball team, in his class, and most recently in our neighborhood.  Last year on Carter's birthday weekend was when we told the kids we were moving from Tennessee to Alabama, so I have many thoughts and memories about this tied to thinking about Carter's birthday.  Carter likes his new school as we are nearing the end of first grade, and as I said he's made lots of new friends there.  I love visiting him at school and seeing him interact with his friends.  He's so confident.  Love it.
Carter also has a very sensitive personality.  He's always concerned about other's feelings, and he is so, so thoughtful. The same little toddler who used to run in the kitchen and kiss me while yelling, "I just came in here to kiss you!" has turned into this sweet seven year old boy, who still gives me unsolicited hugs and kisses!  
Carter is very smart.  He has a "math brain," and it seems that anything relating to numbers clicks with him almost instantly still.  In kindergarten at the end of the school year his teacher gave him the "math magician" award because "his brain works like magic solving math problems, and I think he is still living up to this award.  Now at the end of first grade he knows almost all of his times tables.  We haven't done 12's yet and our 8's need some brushing up on, but he's just a first grader!  He has learned fractions recently as well.  He has also gotten to be a great reader.  Lately he's been really into the I Survived Book Series.  He read almost every single Magic Treehouse book over the summer and the first half of the school year, and I think the few that are left that he's not read, he has somewhat gotten burnt out on reading.  He also loved reading the My Weird School books, but he plows through those so quickly now, that, while he finds them hilarious, they're too easy.  When I ask him what he likes best about school he always says math and science.  His first grade year has had a lot of interesting science units at school, and this has regularly been a favorite part of his day (second to gym of course).  He does well in spelling at school also, and has loved having a challenge word each week on his spelling tests.  The challenge words are really hard and he has loved learning how to spell these words-words like personification, onomatopoeia, evaporation, and this past week's word was ootheca (to be honest, I don't think I had ever in my life heard this word, which thrilled Carter to be able to teach me that an ootheca is the egg sac of a praying mantis -yuck!)  He loves a good challenge though, and these words have been fun for him to learn.
Carter is still very competitive.  This can be with his siblings or in a sport.  He played fall soccer and then basketball, and he did really well in both.  Over the past several weeks, I have been teaching the kids to play tennis in our neighborhood.  Carter immediately loved this game and now wants to practice every day after school.  
Other "favorites" of Carter at this age include fishing, playing his tablet that he got for Christmas, playing checkers, playing war (the card game), playing 10 thousand, and riding his scooter.  He loves looking forward to things even that are way off...for example we have a beach trip planned in the fall and a trip to Washington, DC planned this summer, and he likes to keep a running count down of days until these trips on the chalkboard in his room.  (also on the chalkboard is a count down to Dawson's birthday, and there was one until his birthday until today)...but he loves the countdown.
Carter seems to be one solid muscle.  He's strong and fast and just a solid muscle!  Carter is very polite without me reminding him.  I was recently proud of him after hearing him thank the ladies that organized our neighborhood egg hunt-love his good manners.  Don't get me wrong though, he can tell some gross boy jokes though about bathroom humor with the best of them-which gets his siblings in stitches, but, in general, he seems to save that for his siblings at home.  
Carter still doesn't like cheese-unless it's in pizza, and it must honestly taste  bad to him because he can detect it in the smallest quantity.  He is a good eater otherwise though.  He still prefers meats and veggies separate as compared to pot pies or casseroles or bakes, but he will eat whatever I make, but he loves a steak or burger.  He's always been a meat kinda guy.
Carter is a wonderful middle child.  He is a good little brother to Dawson, and he still looks up to Dawson so much.  He's also a good fellow middle with Nora Kate.  These two have a special relationship that I just can't describe.  I always tell John that I hope they stay this close because, although these two can drive each other nuts at times, they just seem to be so alike or compatible most of the time.  When Carter and Nora Kate were back together full time for spring break they had a blast.  Carter is a good big brother to Clayton too.  Nora Kate has always taken on the role of little mama to Clayton, and Dawson has always wanted to help him and teach him things, but Carter seems to have taken on the role of Clayton's personal comedian.  He likes to make Clayton laugh-and Clayton having a similar personality loves this and tries to make Carter laugh right back! SO cute.
Carter, we absolutely cannot believe that the little 7 pounds 13 ounce bundle of joy that was several days late and then took at 32 hour labor to bring into this world is now SEVEN years old!  We love our sweet, brown-eyed, affectionate Carter so much! I can't wait to see what being seven has in store for you!  
Happy number 7 sweet Carter!

Here is Carter before his 7th birthday party!

I love this sweet boy so much! This was right before he lost his two front teeth!

He has been really into Rocket and Space this year, and he wanted an outerspace birthday party.  Here he is on a recent visit to the Rocket Center as an astronaut!

An Interview with 7 Year Old Carter

When Carter turned three we started asking him the same 20 "interview" questions each year on his birthday.  We have done this each year, and it's fun to see how much the answers change. So this year is Carter's 4th interview!  

So...here's an interview with Carter on his 7th birthday! 

1. What is your favorite color? blue

2. What is your favorite toy? My tablet

3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries and blackberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Spy Kids movie I watched with Daddy, and Wild Kratts

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? For lunch, like no cake or ice cream? In my lunchbox I like peanut butter sandwiches and Cliff Bars with chocolate chip.

6. What is your favorite outfit or things to wear? My hockey shirt and my shirt I got at the aquarium

7. What is your favorite game? War 

8. What is your favorite snack? Cliff Bars

9. What is your favorite animal? Dog

10. What is your favorite song? My Lighthouse

11. What is your favorite book? All the I Survived Books

12. Who is your best friend? Halston, Joshua, Henry, McKennon, and actually Dawson, Nora Kate, and Clayton, and everybody in this family.

13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms and Apple Cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play soccer

15. What is your favorite drink? Sprite 

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Easter

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Lovie and Blanket

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Waffles and pancakes

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Ice Cream and Cake....and pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  That's the hard question...a fisherman.

 Just for the fun of comparison, here are the responses he gave the previous 3 years.  The answers in red are how he responded on his 3rd birthday and the answers in green are his responses from when he turned 4; the blue responses are from when he turned five, and the purple are from when he turned six!!

1. What is your favorite color? 

blue

blue

blue

blue

2. What is your favorite toy?

switch

Nintendo ds

  Paper air planes, sandbox, Wii Tanks

Dump trucks

3. What is your favorite fruit? 

grapes, raspberries, blueberries

grapes 

Apples, bananas, every kind of fruit, and blueberries

blueberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? 

Word Girl

Word Girl

Word World
Octonauts

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? 

Grapes and a peanut butter sandwich or a meat sandwich

Grapes and a peanut butter sandwich…with NO jelly

Bananas

Bananas (It's odd to me that he said Bananas for lunch 2 years in a row...he always has fruit with his lunch, but not always bananas!)

6. What is your favorite outfit or things to wear? 

Gym shorts and a soft shirt

Pajamas!

The shirt where the bears mouth zips open
Shorts!  Soft shirts

7. What is your favorite game? 

Switch Games

Plinko, connect 4, and uno

Mouse Trap

Don’t Break The Ice

8. What is your favorite snack? 

Graham Cracker

Grapes and bananas

Crackers

Blueberries

9. What is your favorite animal? 

lizard

A lizard

Rhinos

elephants.......or the crested screamer (this is a bird at the zoo that for some reason Carter just thinks is hilarious because of it's name)

10. What is your favorite song?

Pumpin Up Music like you play for me before soccer games

That one that goes “This is my commandment that you love one another that your joy may be full!”

Itsy Bitsy Spider and NOT I'm So Fancy! That's a girl song like Nora Kate!

 Itsy Bitsy Spider

11. What is your favorite book?

Round Robin...that bird is so funny she eats TOOOO much

 Junie B. Jones…she’s so funny

SHARKS!

Eye Spy

12. Who is your best friend? 

Harper, Barrett, Mrs. Johnson, everyone in my class, and all of my soccer team are my friends too

Harper

Harper

Mommy and Daddy.  Nora Kate and Dawson.  And “my Charlie” and Harper...she likes walking with me (three days a week on Dawson's school days he gets to walk in to drop off Dawson and Harper is always there too...so I think that's what this was about!

13. What is your favorite cereal? 

Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms

Remember that time we had the circles that were all colors? Me: Fruit Loops? Carter: YES! Those!

Lucky Charms 

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? 

Go to Port St. Joe...that's the best outside thing you can do

Swing or catch grasshoppers

Play on the playset!

Playing in water, chalking, and bubbles!!!

15. What is your favorite drink?

Sprite 

Apple juice

Apple juice and caprisuns!

juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? 

Christmas

 Thanksgiving, no I mean Christmas

Christmas...AND Halloween-remember we get all that CANDY?!

I don't know! Not rainy days?

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? 

Lovie and my Blanket

LOVIE

LOVIE!

My Lovie! 

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? 

Chocolate chip waffles, blueberries, pancakes, bagels

Grapes and Strudels

Bananas, Bagels, and healthy food (hah!)

Candy (laughing) Bananas.  

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

CAKE HAHA and maybe Mr. Gatties 

CAKE HAHA

Waffles

CAKE!  Green beans and corn and cheese pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A fisherman and a golfer

 I don’t know. Maybe a…farmer, or I could change my mind.  Or maybe I’ll be an astronaut or I COULD even make video games like for a ds.  

 A farmer that’s a police man too  Why? I just do! And police mans can drive fast! Oh, no I changed it.  I'm going to be MY Daddy when I grow up...REMEMBER? I told you that!

“a Mommy” Why? Mommy washes dishes.....and I'm going to drive a Monster truck when we live on Dawson's farm!