they looked a lot better before I baked them...at least they tasted good.
For the party, I made a Curious George face stand in and "yellow hat" plates. During the party, the kids went on a scavenger hunt with clues from George. One of the clues let them to a tent and camping kit (awesome gift from Jeremy's mom) that was set up in Logan's room. Jeremy read Curious George Goes Camping to the kids
Eventually the kids found the prize: cookies and masks, so they could be a monkey for the day. Here is a picture of Jeremy in one of the masks
...they looked a whole lot creepier on adults. I think Carter had a pretty great time!
To make the day perfect, Jeremy took Carter to "old Mcdonalds" for a happy meal for dinner. Every year, I write my boys a letter on their birthdays, just things I want to remember about them. My plan is to eventually put the letter into a book. Here is Carter's letter from this year:
Dear Carter,
You are
three, I can’t believe it! I’m not going to lie, two has been a challenging
year, but we made it! You are growing and changing so fast. You are starting to
learn your letters and numbers. You amaze me every day with how smart you are.
You are a genius at building tracks for your trains. That is probably your
favorite thing that we do together. After we build an “ultra track” you make a
giant train with all of your cars and engines and unsuccessfully try to drive
it all around.
It’s been a
really big year for you. You became a big brother! It’s been a challenge for
you (especially once he started to move), but I’m hoping that the two of you
can start to play together a little bit this year. This past year we went to Cape May and stayed
in a beach house with all our friends. You had the greatest time playing on the
beach. We even did a little Easter egg hunt on the beach with all the kids. You still talk about it all the time. Last summer, we were in San Francisco for Dad’s internship. You got lots more
chances to play on the beach, you even saw a whale for the first time! All of your buddies (Reid, Garrett, and
Sydney) were in the bay as well, and we got to do a lot of fun things together
(Happy hollow, tide pools, swimming, Currioddesey, the Discovery Museum of the
Bay). We also took you on your very first camping trip to Yosemite this summer
and you LOVED it. You loved it so much that once we came back to Cornell, we
went on another camping trip with all of our friends to Watkins glen. You have
been wanting to go camping again ever since.
Although you
are sometimes pretty naughty, you melt my heart everyday with how sweet you
are. You tell me that you love me multiple times every day and love to snuggle
together on the couch. You say, “snuggle me mama.” You are always very generous with compliments. You love to help, especially
with cooking. You are learning how to be a good big brother to Logan. He
follows after you like a little puppy and loves you so much. I love it when you
make him laugh when you two are sitting in your car seats together. He makes you pretty upset right now when he
messes up your train tracks. One day, I came out of the bathroom and saw that
our front door was open, you had gone down the stairs and were calling to Logan
at the top of the stairs, “come on Logan!” Like I said, you are still learning to be a big brother haha.
Right now,
Dad is in his second year of graduate school and we live in an apartment
complex with a lot of other LDS families with kids. Almost every day we go
outside and you play with your little buddies (Reid, Henry, Josh, Garrett, and
Sydney). You love to go play in the woods together. You have a “hideout” in the
woods that you like to go to. It’s pretty much just a spot in the woods where
you guys started to dig a hole in the ground.
You are such a good friend. You are always really concerned whenever
anyone isn’t feeling happy or has gotten hurt.
You really really love your friends and I hope that you’ll find good
friends again when we move to California in the summer. Other things that you love right now are the
science center, planes, suckers, fruit “lebber,” chocolate milk, and kitties.
I am so
grateful you are my little boy. I tried to make your birthday a special day for
you this year. This year we did a curious George themed birthday party because
he is your favorite. I set everything up for the party when you were taking
your nap. When you walked into the room you said, “I just can’t believe it!”
You walked out and then said, “I just can’t believe it again!” It made all the
work I put into the party worth it, just seeing your face and hearing you say
that. You had a party with your friends with George masks, a treasure hunt,
cake, a George face cutout, and lots of balloons. Gram gave you a tent and a
camping set, and we gave you a set of dinosaurs. Pops sent you an electric
train, and Nana and Papa sent you a golden Thomas train and a candy bar letter.
After the party, we took you to “Old Mcdonalds” to get a happy meal to end the
perfect day. We Love you!
Love,
Mom