Yummm.....BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

As promised, I'm posting a few photos and videos from Carter's very first birthday party. Well, not much of a "party," as it was just Matt and I and our neighbors, Kristin and Justin... But we had a nice dinner, cake, and some fun!

Starting with PRESENTS! That's right, even though he's only 1, we felt he still needed a few new toys! As expected, he enjoyed the tissue paper more than the actual toys, but eh, that's how it goes. Here's a little video of his gift-opening experience:


Carter received some fun Lego toys and was actually quite enthralled with them:
But that tissue paper STILL held a little more appeal...
Until Daddy showed him how to stack them all together! Weeee!
Carter even got a few new bath toys (which went straight into his mouth...):
And then Kristin (and Justin...but I bet Kristin had a little more to do with it...) brought Carter a HUGE gift. For scale, we put it on his high chair tray and it nearly engulfed him!
It was a new Radio Flyer wagon (and walker toy)! He LOVED banging on the box and before long, I'll be posting photos/videos of him pushing/pulling it around the house and yard! Thanks Kristin and Justin!
Carter was decked out in his "First Birthday" bib and enjoyed some steak, potatoes, and ratatouille for his birthday dinner:
And then we moved on to cake... I tried to make him a "cupcake cake" (which I have this fancy silicone pan for), but I didn't realize you had to use TWO cake mixes to make it. So, instead, he got a fancy cupcake mushroom cake... But it was in KU colors! Red (strawberry) cake and blue (buttercream) frosting. Check out this goofy confection:
Before we let him try it out, we all sang (horribly...here's your warning if you watch the video with the sound turned on...) the "Happy Birthday" song to Carter. He was just a little weirded out by the big blue "thing"...


And THEN, he got to try the cake. A little befuddled by it at first, he decided to touch it to see what it felt like:Daddy gave him a little frosting (and Mommy sliced it in half) and he started to get the idea:
...and proceeded to try little bits here and there and smear a little blue frosting in his hair:
Here's a short little video of him smashing the birthday cake and banging on his tray:



...and then, nearly completely pooped from the long birthday celebration, Mommy took the cake away. Only to reveal Carter's blue legs:
So before he passed out, I snapped one more photo before Daddy gave him a bath:
Even as sleepy as he looked, it took a bit to get him to bed that night, as the sugar high didn't end until after 10PM. Oh well, you're only 1 once, right?!

So, I'll end with his "official" 1-year photo (and the LAST of the photo cards! Yay!):
Going straight into toddler-hood at 22 pounds and 30.5" tall (per the doc visit on Wednesday), our boy is right where he needs to be: in the middle of the charts. We had a blast during the first year and made it through one of the hardest times of our life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

And now, we pack for KC, since we're jumping on a jet plane to go celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa C! Plenty of photos, parties, and blogging material coming next week! Stay tuned...
~kerrie