Aloha, Carson! 8/16/08

Great idea, right? A 1st birthday LUAU! Tiki torches in the backyard, Hawaiian music playing, the smell of barbeque...

It was POURING RAIN on the morning of Carson's party. We had to quickly adjust plans to fit 36 people in our house, and make some tweaks to the luau theme by setting up shop in the garage instead of the backyard and creating a playroom in the basement for the kids. It worked out beautifully, actually--and the feeling of Aloha actually drove the rain away during the party!
Here is the Birthday Boy--he proudly wore his party favors all afternoon, and he was very social with all of his guests. :) The reason that his shirt is unbuttoned will be explained momentarily...

Mike and Carson are getting ready for the festivities to begin:

We had to get a family portrait--this is a little blurry though, and of course it is the one where Carson is smiling!!

We set up the ping pong table and the washews game (some of you might know it as "hillbilly horseshoes") in the garage, and this ended up being the popular location to hang out. We even opened Carson's presents in the garage, because it seemed silly to move everyone back inside.
Jonna, Jay and the kids stopped by the party on their way to the Bronco game :)

The kitchen started out as a buffet style food line, and ended up with Carson and his cake. The best part about this picture is Tyler Crispin showing off his aloha spirit (wearing the blue in the middle)!

Grandpa B and Carson--two peas in a pod. They look like they are ready for a luau!

Grandma L and Carson--this is one of my FAVORITE pics. :)

Grandma and Grandpa with Carson. He is so lucky to have all of his grandparents so close. He has a special bond with each of them.

Mom looked so pretty in her aloha shirt--we decided to add another "mother-daughter" picture to our collection!

Mike made Carson a mini-cake for him to destroy, and he also made 2 other mini-cakes for Mom (birthday is 8/14) and Carson's cousin, Collin (birthday is 8/11). After we sang to Carson, we all sang again for Mom and Collin. Everyone else got lemon or chocolate cupcakes. I am a big fan of cupcakes over regular cake--they are less messy, and have a lot of potential for great presentation. I even saw cupcakes at the last wedding that I went to. GREAT idea!

This was what Carson was looking at as the house rang with the "happy birthday" song...easy to see why kids get kinda scared in this situation. I only invited family and people who Carson knows really well--and the list still spiraled out of control!! Carson seemed to enjoy the attention for the most part.

See, I'm smart and I plan ahead. This would explain why Carson is shirtless but wearing a lei in this picture. If I want Carson to go crazy with his cake...and I don't want his little shirt that we bought in Hawaii ruined...the solution is to skin the boy down for this event!!

It is quite a feeling as a parent with your first child turns 1 year old. This was a great moment for me. Carson, like any other male I know, was transfixed by the FIRE.

He seemed to thoroughly enjoy the singing of Happy Birthday--but will he deliver a cake performance??

He is checking out the situation...dabbling if you will...

Both hands went in and eventually made it to his mouth! Mission accomplished!

Brody Wood was coaching Carson on the whole cake thing as he was eating a cupcake.

In the end, though, Carson did not like the messy cake hands and preferred to eat cake with a spoon. Debbie Senseney helped him switch gears here while I cleaned him up a bit. Carson absolutely adores Chad's mom!

Here is Mom with her surprise cake. It says "Happy Grandma Birthday". Let me just say that I know we aren't cake decorating professionals, but I thought we were a little better with english grammar :). Maybe Yoda is in our subconscious...

Here is my nifty cupcake tower investment. I'm telling you--cupcakes are the way to go at any party!! We made lemon cupcakes because they are Collin's favorite.

Carson's cake carnage for the archives:

This is a great pic of Byron and Ethan Thompson-

Of course Uncle John was there--he gave Carson a stuffed sea otter for his birthday, and Carson loves to play with the sea otter when he is getting his diaper changed. There is a weird connection between Uncle John, Carson, and going to the bathroom that I don't think anyone truly understands...

Newlyweds Cisco and Sarina are holding Kasey Crispin. Personally I think this is a great look for them, and they should get crackin' on having kids!! :) (Or whenever you are ready, Little Buddy...)

Ayrica, Brody, and Elaina Wood are our Denver Zoo and swimming buddies. El and Carson could already be boyfriend & girlfriend...

Uncle Jeff and Uncle Bob are people that Carson sees on a daily basis. They are so great with him, and he loves them!

I appreciated how seriously Bob took the Luau party theme!! I am also glad that he didn't wear a coconut bra.

I can always count on Crystal to bring style to Carson's wardrobe. Like me, she has a weakness for those cute little namebrand items!!

Carson would hang out all day with Debbie. Debbie and Keith sometimes babysit Carson for us, and he even sits with Debbie at Centaurus football games. The Senseney's are great people!

Here is the rest of the Senseney clan: Chad is in the middle, and his brother Darin and dad Keith are enjoying some quality time watching Carson open his presents.

Hannah Thompson is such a great helper with Carson. She is never far away from him, and she even reads books to him which he loves. She is such a cutie!

The sweatshirt is from Crystal, of course!

It is always fun to watch other kids help open presents, because they want to play with the new toys so bad! Of course we opened everything up and it was a free-for-all!

Collin is going to be Carson's idol as he gets older. They are 14 years apart, but I can already see the cousin dynamic where Collin will be the "coolest" person that Carson has ever seen!

Collin and Brody are putting together a spectacular ball-popper toy.

In this picture, Carson is playing with the Elmo car that we gave him for his birthday. He loves to open and close the seat, and push it all around the house. Yes!! Score.

Well, things just keep getting better and better--and that is saying a lot because Carson is teething molars right now and it isn't pretty...we wouldn't trade one second, and it is so amazing to have so many great people in our lives who are along for the ride. :)

The Zoo Carousel is a Happy Place

Carson loves riding the Carousel at the Zoo. We have a little pattern now that we have been there so many times this Summer. Bob took some pretty impressive pics considering that the ride was going on at the time--
Carson can't figure out what he likes best: all the lights above or the fact that he is riding a tiger. He always gives the animal a lot of "pats" when he is riding, and every once in a while he starts clapping (which isn't a good thing for balance!!).

There are some pretty fun things coming up at the zoo this Fall. "Boo at the Zoo" and the Wildlights will be attended by our whole family, because we just love the Denver Zoo!!!

Happy Birthday, Carson--The Cupcake trial run...

Mike and I sang Happy Birthday to Carson on his actual Birthday, and we set up a trial run to see what kind of performance Carson was going to deliver with his cake at the birthday Luau on Saturday:

It appeared that he was NOT going to disappoint when it comes to cake!!

Good times--

With a little help from Daddy...

Ummmm....yummy cupcake! And lots of clapping!!

There is some tentative discomfort with the messy hands in this picture. Carson is not very messy, and he was glad to get cleaned up after enjoying his birthday cupcake!

August 13, 2008--Carson is ONE

It is truly amazing how fast time flies. We have been so lucky in the past year, and it is hard to believe that Carson is already ONE year old!
I took Carson in to get professional pictures, and let me tell you that it is a whole new ball game now that he is mobile! He wanted no part of sitting in any picture pose, and I ended up getting away pretty cheap because there just weren't a ton of great shots. There were, however, a few good ones...

Yes--that is a toy cell phone in his little hand. He doesn't try to play with OUR phones as much now that he has his own phone--who would have guessed that it would end up in his 1st year pics? What a sign of the times!!

This is a compilation picture that I ordered and we have displayed in the house. It definitely captures a lot of different facets of CARSON:

He just looks totally suspicious in this picture...

Again--he got real irritated when we wouldn't let him wander off and explore in the studio. This pic is pretty typical of a lot of the proofs:

I love this picture, except that he is really trying to pry the eyeballs out of this stuffed dog. Not exactly the memory I'm searching for from 12 month pictures (or am I????)! :)

This picture is cute in that it showcases Carson's love for his own feet. He hates shoes, and this picture will remind me of that fact.

Last but not least, it is good to have keepsakes of the good moods and the bad. I am actually SO GLAD that we got this picture! How can you turn down this sad little face?

My precious boy is ONE!!