In Carter’s book, Saturday was “the best day ever!” Though his real birthday isn’t until Friday, he had his birthday party this past Saturday.  We used to have birthdays at our own house, and we could invite everyone we wanted.  But the prep/cleanup and anxiety about the parties was more than I thought I could handle for the next fifteen years, so we decided we’d pay a little bit more and have parties “out” from now on–we help the kids decide where to have it, and it’s so easy and stress free.  With that though comes a price obviously. . . so now we can no longer invite everyone we’d like, and we have to keep the list on the small side.  When I first asked Carter who he’d like to come to his party, he wanted to invite half of Rochester.  But–poor kid–he was only allowed to pick seven friends.  The kids had a blast . . . they did lots of jumping. . . off of trampolines, off of mats,  into foam blocks.  They did some swinging and rolling and cartwheeling and flipping.  And everyone smiled 🙂  And that’s what counts.

The best part of the whole things was when he opened his gifts and acted like one of us adult folks would act if we just won a million dollars.  No lie.  With every present.  It was the best.

One more party down in the books.  One more day of beautiful memories.  And one more day of smiles with friends.