Carter's 8!

I realize his birthday was a month ago, so I guess it's time I document it.

 

I cannot blieve that he is 8!  He made me a mom, 8 years ago.  Crazy how time has gone!  He is so excited to be baptized and to get to go to scouts.  He will be baptized in Utah when we go home at Christmas, he wanted to make sure his friends and family would be able to be there. He cannot wait!

His birthday was on a Friday, and since school is SO early in the morning I didn't do his birthday breakfast on his birthday, but on Saturday morning instead.  He kinda got a whole weekend of celebrating.  Saturday Trent spent most of the day helping a family in our ward move, so he spent all of the night studying, so we didn't do birthday cake or his birthday dinner then, we did it Sunday instead. I'm pretty sure Carter didn't mind the whole weekend of celebrating.

 Friday night we took him on his 'mommy/daddy date' (a special time with only the birthday kid, they get to choose where to eat and what to do).  He said he wanted seafood for dinner, so we gave him a few options and he choose Joe's Crab Shack.  It did not disappoint!  The meal he chose had battered fish and shrimp with fries.  He loves all things seafood, so he loved this!  (next time he says he needs to try the crab) Trent and I shared a huge platter that had battered fish, coconut shrimp, crab stuffed shrimp, hush puppies, cream cheese jalapeno things, and fries.  SO tasty! But how one person eats that all I'll never know, we couldn't finish it.  He told our waitress as soon as we sat down that it was his birthday.  After we paid for our meal she brought a crab bib out, she had drawn a superman 's' on the back, handed him two crab cracker things and loudly got everyone's attention.  She told everyone it was his birthday and he was going to run around the restaurant, as long as he was running we could sing to him.  He LOVED it!  He flew all around while we sang to him.

After dinner we headed downtown.  Since we moved here Carter has wanted to go to the Tower of the Americas.  It is very prominent downtown, and you can see it from all over the city.

He decided that for his date activity that is what he wanted to do.  Parking downtown in a nightmare.  It's really expensive.  The lot at the Tower was $11 and they only took cash, something we rarely have on hand.  So we drove around and found parking at a hotel near by for $9.  The walk was nice down along the Riverwalk and through Hemisphere Park.  Well worth the $2 we saved :)

The view from the tower was amazing.  You could see all around the city.  We even could see where we live, which isn't too hard since we live 5 mins from downtown.  After we were done at the top of the tower we went down to watch the 4D movie.  It was only 15mins long, but it was fun!  Carter laughed and giggled through the whole thing, even jumping out of his chair at one point.  It is so fun for us to spend this one on one time with my kids on their special day!

 

Bottom left picture, red roofed buildings is Fort Sam Houston where we live.

For his birthday breakfast he chose waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.  I made them extra special by putting chocolate chips in the batter. Yummy!

 

For his birthday dinner he chose his favorite, shell noodles with Alfredo sauce and shrimp.  He wanted a white cake with chocolate frosting.  I got a little creative and made up a cake--from a recipe that I usually make with a chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding, hazelnut coffee creamer, sour cream, it's a favorite cake around here.  I used a white cake mix and a coconut pudding mix with the hazelnut creamer and the sour cream.  Oh. My. Gosh.  It was SO good!  I think better than the chocolate.  Carter loved it, which is really all that is important.  We got on skype with my family and all sang to him together.  How lucky we are to live in this age of technology!  Grandma and Grandpa, cousins, and aunts and uncles all got to sing to Carter on his birthday.  Too bad we couldn't share cake and ice cream too :)

They were waiting patiently while I cut up cake and dished up ice cream...the computer was set up while he blew out his candles and we sang to him.  He even got to skype Aunt Jamie while he opened his birthday present from her. (I thought I had taken pictures of it...but I guess I didn't)

He got a new bike from us for his birthday.  He desperately needed a new one so we found one at Wal Mart for him, it's a cheap bike, but will work for him. Our amazing neighbor spend a couple of hours with him on his birthday adjusting breaks, handle bars, seat, and whatever else needed adjusting.  Carter got home from school, dropped his stuff and went next door so Luke could help him get his bike all ready.  We are so lucky to have good neighbors!

Carter is such a good kid and we are so blessed to have him in our family!  Last week I had parent teacher conferences.  Carter's teacher had nothing but extreme praise for him.  She said he was a joy to have in class.  He is well liked by the other kids, respectful to her and the rules of the classroom.  And he is SO smart!  He reads on a 5th grade level---he's in 2nd grade---his math scores are extremely high.  Kids in his class are supposed to be reading about 60 words per minute (most read under that), he tested at 184 per minute.  She wants to recommend him for the gifted and talented program in the spring when recommendations are due. But what I loved the most is that she said, even though he is smart he's not a nerdy smart, he has social skills too.  She said we should be really proud of our child.  And truly we are, except, I cannot take credit for any of it.  It is just who he is; a good kid who is really intelligent and social. We are so lucky to have him in our family!  We love you Carter!!