Carter Turns 5!

For his birthday, Carter wanted to build a treehouse. We don't have a great tree, so we improvised with a playground. He worked hard and spent several days all day working in the sun with Dayton to get it built. Then, Carter and I painted it together. This kid can work! When it comes to outside projects and manual labor, this kid is a machine. I'm amazed at his attention span to work on something day in and day out until its finished, and do with cheerfully with a smile on his face. It took a couple of weeks to get it all done, but we managed to get it done for his birthday. We still need to add sand below and a few other things, but we got most of it all ready for him. 

Carter is a foodie and had his entire day of meals planned out for his big day. We started with chocolate chip pancakes. Then we had a sandwich picnic at the reservoir "Mapleton Beach." For dinner, we had biscuits and gravy. He helped me make the baking powdered biscuits. 

For his cake, he wanted a trifle. He decided to go with a rainbow trifle. We made a rainbow cake, layered with vanilla pudding and whipped cream topped with white Oreos and sprinkles. He looked cool, but he wasn't totally satisfied with the taste. HAH! Afterwards, he wanted to have a family hike so we went up to the "stick house" hike up whiting canyon. 

 

We had so much fun playing at the beach. After a few hours Dayton took the littles home for naps and just Carter and I got to stay at the beach. We played in the sand ALL afternoon. We built a big pool surrounded by a big wall. We kept filling it with water until he would pour out and make a big "river" to the pond. We then tried to make it big enough for both of us to sit in it. We were a little big and it quickly destroyed, but we had a BLAST. I was so glad I got chosen to stay with Carter. So good to spend one on one time with my little man. 

Carter is cheerful, creative, thoughtful, and very nurturing. He has a funny sense of humor and loves to tease. He can be goofy and yet so aware of everyone's needs and emotions around him. I'm amazed at the emotional maturity. He can sense what people need and then he does his best to help them. He is selfless and will put others needs above his own. I am so impressed with how good of a big brother he is. He loves and cares for his brothers and worries about their safety. Happiest of birthdays to my bug. What would I do without this cutie in my life? He teaches me so much. 

Carter is a hands on kind of kid. He is constantly fiddling and taking this apart to figure out how they work. Sometimes this drives me crazy, but I remind myself that Carter is exploring and learning. He loves to create and has a real talent for it.

A random memory of Carter. We were driving through Springville and passed the cemetery. Carter yelled, Hey mom, what are those things? They look like a bunch of 10 commandments. They were the headstones. I laughed so hard. Carter can do that.