The Boys' Birthdays

 So it's only been three months since we celebrated the boys' birthdays, (Carter, May 14th and Gavin, May 20th) but it would be criminal not to blog about them.  Just as a preface, yes, there are like four times as many pictures of Carter's birthday than Gavin's, but that is only because is was a "friend party" year for Carter...his FIRST party, to be a little more specific, and he requested a Pirate Party.  It was SO RIDICULOUSLY FUN planning this thing, but boy was I tired when it was over.

Here are a few of the details.  :)

Above: Gavin and Greyson enjoying some of the snacks.

Below:  The battle; most of Carter and Michael's teammates defected to the other side, so I was forced to join in the fun.  :)

 Below:  Walking the plank.

The pinyata - full of Salt Water taffy all the way from California because I couldn't find it ANYWHERE in our area...THANKS MOM for sending all of that!  We sure enjoyed it.  :)

Below:  Opening presents with friends.  Ok, so this is one of the prime reasons I LOATH friend parties.  I have been to A LOT of birthdays where the kids act like rotten brats and don't say "thank you" or just chucks the gifts aside that were less than stellar in their opinion.  Rude, rude, rude.  We're all glad you were born, but that doesn't give you the right to be a jerk.  No way.  So, I made it very clear to Carter than he be gracious and grateful to each of his friends for each of their gifts.  He did pretty well, and it's a good thing too, cuz I would have been mortified. 

After all the friends left, the kids put on pirate tatoos...I totally thought I had purchased stickers...darn it.  I'll have to check better next time I guess. :)

And that evening, we celebrated as a family.

 Carter is NOT a fan of cake, so we just had ice cream cones.  I was certainly not complaining.  I got out of making a cake for cryin' out loud!  

Happy 5th birthday Carter!  You are getting so big!!!  We LOVE you!

 6 days later, Gavin turned THREE!

This little guy has changed SO MUCH in the last year.  When he turned 2, he was barely uttering 30 words and was super low maintenance...now, he is a constant stream of words and rather lengthy, high vocab sentences, and quite frankly, is anything but low maintenance.  He is a stubborn little dude with insurmountable energy.  Man I envy that.

 He requested taquitos, NOT the homemade ones.  He specifically wanted the ones from the freezer section, with a jar of store bought salsa, chips and fruit.  It doesn't get much easier than that.  AND, to top it off, he wanted to choose a cake from the store.  AWESOME!  I totally got off the hook this year.  Hey, he was happy (and so was I).

 A few weeks prior when he and I were out birthday shopping for Carter, he spotted some toy yard tools and told me over and Over and OVER again that he wanted a blower and an edger for his birthday.  That's pretty much all he talked about from then until his birthday.  And, that lucky little dude, got what he wanted. He's completely obsessed with yard work...in fact, the lawn mower he received for his birthday last year from Nona and Papa is still one of his favorite toys. 

Blowin' out his candles.

We sure love you Gavin!  Hope you had a fabulous 3rd birthday!!!