Carson's Second Birthday

This year Carson's birthday was a little less crazy, but still alot of fun. I decided to have a party just for the kids, my friends who have children close to his age. Then on his actual birthday I had some of the immediate family over for cake and ice cream.


Saturday, August 13th, was the day we had Carson's "friend" party. I wanted it to be small and simple, since it was my first party with kids and I had just found out a month before that I was pregnant again! LOL! I didn't want to overdo it. I just wanted to see how it would be and if I could do it. I wanted to have all the stuff I knew Carson liked to play with, so I chose the Beach Monkey theme. We had beach balls, bubbles, and balloons, three of Carson's favorite things. We also had it outdoors at our house, another first, and had a kiddie pool with a palm tree in the middle that cascaded water from it, and of course he loved that (running water, that is!). It seemed like all the kids had a great time.


For snacks, I made all low-protein foods that Carson and Noah could share with us. I made low protein chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies (which were the biggest hit), low protein tortilla chips for the boys and salsa (store bought), and a Chex party mix from Rice Chex, gluten-free pretzel sticks, and low protein bread cubes. I also attempted to make ice cream from coconut milk, but this is a work in progress. I still didn't get it sweet enough. Shaunna's boy, Lucas, picked up right away that it didn't taste the same. But he loved the Chex mix!

A big thanks to all who came and helped Carson celebrate and have fun at his first kids' party: Shaunna, Lucas, and Callie; LouLou and Chloe; and the Martins, Jimmy, Julie, Cady, Anna, and Noah. We had a great time and hope you did too!





The Three 2-year-old Amigos: Noah, Callie, and Carson


Callie teaching Noah how to blow bubbles


Noah and Carson enjoying some favorites: balloons, bubbles, and of course, cookies!


Showing the love: Thank you for coming to my party Noah! As Carson would now say, "Aww..."


The men (Daddy and Jimmy, Noah's daddy) chasing the beach balls as a storm is blowing up


And for the final entertainment of the day, Marty will demonstrate for the Martin family how to feed grasshoppers to his pet garden spider! EWW!!!

On Carson's actual birthday, August 16th, some of the immediate family came over and had cake and some ice cream and brought Carson presents. We were blessed to have Uncle Eric home with us and he was able to come and visit. Carson was thrilled...just look at the expression on his face when he first saw him! We miss Uncle Eric so much!!!
Others who came were Granny and Pops, Nanny, Nana and PawPaw, and Uncle Jason. I made Carson's low protein cake again and did maybe a slightly better job of decorating it this time, but nothing fancy. It also had a better texture and tasted better this year. I am growing into my role as Carson's low protein chef!


Carson enjoyed looking at his food through the balloons


Carson's favorite new toy that sings his favorite lullaby. He sleeps with his "Elmie" every night.


PawPaw showing Carson the new Johnny Tractor book Granny got him, which is now his favorite of all time and we have read it 10,000 times!


"What's in that BIG box?"


Carson supervising PawPaw and Dada putting together his new slide


Always the engineer: Carson has to see how everything works, including where the bubbles come from on his Bubble Mater!


It's also fun to make someone else do the work, Uncle Eric, so I can see the bubbles!


Enjoying the new slide


A beautiful sunset at the house giving a nice ending to a very happy birthday!