Carter's Birthday

Carter's birthday party on Saturday was a great success. He had lots of fun and loved the attention. Here is a story of his birthday in pictures.

Carter excitedly waited all morning for his friends to come over.

He waited patiently to eat his cake and looked longingly at it many times during the day.

It was a lion cake to go along with the jungle theme. What it lacked in appearance it made up for in home-made deliciousness.

Carter and his friends had fun decorating their favor bags with jungle stamps.

Meanwhile, the babies socialized with each other.
Carter opened lots of presents. He loved the dragon castle with its trap door, treasure, and boulder.

Cameron pretended to be Medusa with some of Carter's snakes.

And the helicopter was great. He loved all the noises it made.

Finally, it was cake time. Carter's eyes lit up when we all started singing. He still likes to sing Happy Birthday to himself a few times a day.


Carter and Mark enjoyed sharing a piece of cake.

It was a great party. Happy third birthday, Carter.

Cause for Celebration

If I titled every week of my life, this week’s title would be celebration. Each event is so so notable and remarkable for me that I wanted to include them in separate posts. So keep scrolling. Keep reading. Keep celebrating.

Change we can believe in

Tuesday night Mark and I sat glued to the TV, celebrating every state the turned blue, cheering as if we were watching our favorite team score points leading to winning the superbowl. We brushed off the red states and tried not to let them get us down. We were fighting for a winning team. Or at least we hoped so. Then, in silence, on the screen came what looked like a billboard with the words, “Obama, 44th President Elect, 2008.” We looked at each other with wide eyes. Was this a commercial? Wishful thinking? Another political advertisement? No. It was that moment. That moment in history that I will always remember. Right up there with them memory of the Berlin Wall coming down. The announcer came on and let the country and the world know that the race had been called. Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. When Mark and I finally found words, we reflected on what an amazing time in history our children would be growing up in. Carter would see a black man as president and think nothing of it. I rejoiced that my boys would grow up in a country where someone who was something other than old and white and a war hero could be president. My heart filled with hope and pride.