Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays

My birthday gift budget is going to help the economy. We've been to at least 5 parties and missed a couple in the past few weeks. We had a blast at all of them though. And Carter keeps insisting that it's HIS birthday party we are going to and I keep telling him his birthday is in January and we will celebrate then. But on Wednesday when we went to Luke's party, he again said it was his birthday and I told him no and asked him when his birthday was. His reply, "On Tuesdays and Thursdays". Uh no, honey, that's when you go to school :)

Another fun thing we did recently is enjoy a trip from Brian's mom. She came down for almost week at the beginning of the month. Here she is with the boys before bedtime.


And on Dad's birthday, the 6th, we all went to Benihana's to celebrate. Dad picked the best place to take the boys. Carter had a BLAST. He didn't try, even once, to get out of his chair during dinner. That's one of our biggest battles these days.

They sang to Dad, Parker was embarrased I think :)

Here are some pictures from Luke's party. I'm waiting on a real cute one from Joanna that she took of Carter and Luke. I'll edit my post once I get it from her.

Cole joined in the festivities as well. Here he is chowing down on a cupcake. At Grant's party last Saturday he ate a chocolate cupcake. And at Carter's friend, Madison's party he ate an entire piece of chocolate cake. I would NEVER have allowed Carter to eat all that sugar before he was 1. But hey, your rules get much more relaxed with number 2 :)

The boys are doing well these days. We're staying busy, as you can assume with all the parties. Cole is on the move big time. He's even pulling up to a standing position on his own now. I put him down to play with some toys in the living room while I was doing laundry and then a few minutes later I heard banging on what sounded like the table in the playroom. I thought, no way, he can't stand yet. But alas, this is what I found when I walked in the room. Cole had crawled in there and pulled himself up to stand at the table.

He loves his new found freedom, as does Carter. They play really well together. Yes, Carter gets frustrated every now and then when Cole takes a toy he was playing with. But overall, they really do enjoy each others company. I have the cutest video of them playing chase around the kitchen island. But since they had just got out of the tub, and are naked - it is obviously inappropriate for the Internet. Guess those that are interested will have to come over and see it person.

Carter continues to enjoy school. They have off next week for Thanksgiving, but celebrated this past Thursday. He came home with a turkey painted handprint, a colorful pasta necklace and an Indian headband.