Carter’s Birthday

On April 7, my little Carter turned 7! I can’t believe that little blonde haired blue eyed baby boy that I brought home in my arms is now a big 7 year old boy! As big as he gets he’s still my boy and I hope he never tires of our one on one talks before bed that we call “pillow talk”.

Carter has been absolutely obsessed with basketball lately. He has begged for a real basketball hoop in our yard. Now remember we live in a Condo with a patio in front and a small yard. Carter has been playing on a little tykes hoop and has definitely outgrown it. Chris was against the idea at first since we don’t have the space for it but I told him I’m willing to sacrifice the aesthetics of our patio so my son can be happy. (and stop bouncing balls in the house!). So the night before his birthday I went to Toys r us to pick it up and we hid it on the side of the house the next morning when he went to school. As soon as we came back from dropping the kids off, I got to work putting it together. It was no easy task since I did it alone but I wanted my son to come home from school on his birthday and be so excited. Chris was at work and wouldn’t be home until the evening. When he came home from school he was so excited and even though it was a cold day with a few showers, he played outside for hours. The bouncing of the ball was music to my ears (I don’t know about the neighbors!)

Carter takes a shot and… it’s good!

As you can see our patio area is pretty small, but at least he’ll get good at free throws. Maybe someday we’ll be able to move to a bigger place with more room. For now it works. Chris loves to come home and play horse and shoot around with Carter. It has been lots of fun to have!

That night for Carter’s birthday we went to dinner at Lucille’s BBQ, Carter’s choice.

A week and a half later we had a fun party with both sides of the family. In keeping with the basketball theme, we had hotdogs and basketball cupcakes. The kids broke a basketball piñata and we listened to some fun basketball tunes (including Carter’s fav “Teach me how to Jimmer!”) We had a blast! I love getting together with the family.

Chris was a master at the grill and he made bacon wrapped hotdogs. We had all sorts of toppings to go on top: Grilled onions, dill pickles, avocado, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and Jdawgs sauce (copy cat recipe that was pretty yummy!)

I opted for the easy cupcakes instead of having Grandma make an elaborate cake. He didn’t seem to mind. (I did have Grandma do the black lines for me since I’m a little challenged with icing)

Libby gets the first whack at the piñata

The kids make a mad dash for the candy after Quintin demolished it!