Carter's 8th Birthday Party

It's about time I post about Carter's 8th birthday party - his 9th birthday is less than a month away!

Carter decided he wanted an art party again for his birthday.  We had is party at the Art Attic for his 7th birthday but we decided to do it at our house this time.  I figured I could do a painting and prep the canvases myself, and save a lot of money!

Carter decided he wanted a surfboard painting.  I looked through some ideas online and we came up with this ...

I figured the kids could make the painting their own by decorating the surfboards however they wanted.  I sketched out the drawing on all the canvases ahead of time just like they do at the Art Attic.

I used Carter's birthday banner from the previous year and used the colors from it to inspire the decorations.

We moved the dining room table next to the kitchen table to give us more space.

Carter even assigned seats :)

Carter wanted a cake that looked like an artist's palette.

Carter invited several boys in his class.

Whit:

Brody:

Noah:

Charlie:

Grayson:

Jett:

Camden (Charlie & Whit's younger brother):

Rylan:

Birthday Boy!:

The boys did a great job staying focused on painting.  There were no paint accidents either!

As the kids finished up their paintings, they had snacks.  And then it was cake time!

After cake we headed outside to attempt this failure :)

I put paint in the balloons, put removable vinyl on the canvas, and planned for the kids to throw darts at the balloons to pop them and spread the paint.  It didn't work at all and we gave up on it quickly.

Instead the boys played football until their parents arrived to pick them up

The party ended up working out really well and Carter loved it!

Pumpkins

Our pumpkins this year ...

 

by Carter

by Rylan

by Gray (w/ a little help)

Fall Break in Kentucky

The boys had fall break last week (they got Wednesday - Friday off).  After a crazy start to the school year that was even busier than normal now that Carter is in 3rd grade and has real homework and tests, we needed a few days away.  We decided to head up to Kentucky for two days.  We had planned on taking the boys to Kentucky Downs last month to see horse races but the race got postponed to a weekday when the remnants of one of the hurricanes came through.  Rylan was especially disappointed that we didn't get to go.  Keeneland in Lexington races in October so we decided that would be a perfect place to go.

We drove up to Lexington on Thursday morning and got to Keeneland about 45 minutes before the first post.  It was a cool and overcast day but I was fine with that instead of 90 and blazing hot.  We sat in the general admission area with was perfect for the boys so they could run around and be close to the horses.

We stayed for all 10 races and were able to go right up front for the last few races as people started to leave.

We even got to pet some horses :)

We gave Carter and Rylan $20 each so they could bet $2 on each races.  Brian and I bet $2 each on all the races as well.  Some of us did better than others :)

Carter was the big winner!  He won something in 7 of the 10 races for a total of $41.40

Rylan only won twice for a total of $9.60.  There were a few tears.  I still haven't figured out how to make it fair for keeping their winnings.  Maybe Rylan will just forget that Carter won more ...

This guys is just cute :)

I won $28 and Brian won nothing (though he was doing the more complicated bets where you have to get more than one horse correct in hopes of getting a big payout).

We were super happy that we made it to Keeneland.  We all had a lot of fun and even Gray keeps talking about it.

After the races, we drove over to Louisville where we stayed the night.  The boys always love getting to spend a night at a hotel!

The next morning we headed downtown to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Tour.

The museum is small but the tour was good and the boys just finished up baseball season and have been watching the playoffs so they enjoyed it.  Plus they each got a mini bat to keep after the tour (I think the bats have been in time-out more than they have not).

We had lunch downtown and then went to the Kentucky Science Center which was in the next block.  We got in free with one of our memberships to a TN museum which is always a bonus!

The museum didn't appear large from the outside but it was huge inside and we kept finding new exhibits to explore.  And being a Friday afternoon, it was almost empty (no field trips or weekend crowd).  We spent about 4 hours there before deciding it was time to head home.

Go Titans!

Rylan's new haircut ...

One of Carter's friends had a power T and checkerboard (for UT) cut into his hair and Rylan REALLY wanted something similar.  It wasn't cheap and it won't last long, but Rylan loves it!  It's a once-a-year haircut :)

Upper Braces & Palette Expander

Notice anything different?

Before:

 
After:

Carter is starting phase one braces.  Today he got his upper braces and upper palette expander.  He will be getting headgear, lower braces, and a lower palette expander soon.  Our sweet orthodontist likes to go slow with young kids and not overwhelm them with with too much stuff in their mouths at once.

Carter did great getting everything on.  I had lunch with him, and he said he wasn't too sore.  He only ate soft food (jello, a muffin, and ice cream for lunch) just in case.  Hopefully he's doing okay when I pick him up.

We get to turn his palette expander once a day so that'll probably keep Carter a little sore for a bit.  We got all the fun stuff I remember from having braces to keep them clean - not much has changed there.  Carter is still excited since he's one of the first kids he knows to have braces.  I'm sure that'll wear off soon enough.

Gray went with us this morning and he did not want to be left out of the photo session :)