Five!!!

Tyler. There are not words to describe the amount of joy this boy brings into our home. I cannot believe we have had the privilege of being his parents for five years already. He was so excited for this birthday. He chose his cake out of my cake book a couple months ahead of time. And he planned out his whole birthday menu. We've always had birthday parties for the kids, but this year Tyler didn't want one. He didn't want to invite anyone to his party because his friend Hannah moved to Australia and couldn't come! He just wanted to to spend it with our family.

The celebration started with bringing birthday cupcakes to school!

Since we weren't having a party we told him he could choose something fun to do as a family. He chose the Children's Museum! 

The only pictures I got were of the works of art they drew on their faces with face paint.

And of Aria with the giant ant.

The next day, on his actual birthday he woke up to streamers and balloons in his doorway!

His menu for the day looked like this:

Breakfast: Mickey Mouse Pancakes (which Aria completely dominated. She may have eaten more pancakes than the rest of us combined).

Lunch: Cranberry or chocolate chip muffins. He let me choose. I let him have cranberry muffins, but I did add a few extras to this meal. It wasn't just muffins. :-)

Dinner: Tacos, milk and either carrots or strawberries. But not both.

Cake: Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, salted caramel sauce and peanut praline.

Starting the morning off right!

Sweet birthday boy.

This was the cake he chose. He chose it over all the other cakes in my book, and kids cakes on Pinterest. He has very sophisticated cake taste.

Five candles!

Carsten agreed with the cake choice.

Ready to open some gifts.

Tyler is constantly trying to borrow my kitchen utensils and lately he has been begging for his own cooling rack for their little kitchen. Happy Birthday!

Enjoying the party!

He got lots of love from his grandparents and aunts and uncles!

Chef Tyler! Trying out his new BBQ set.

And finishing the day with his taco dinner.

Tyler is such a sweetheart. He cares and loves so much. He is constantly making pictures for Carsten, Aria, Carl and I. The other day I came out and noticed the leftover scone from breakfast was missing. I asked if they had eaten it and he showed me that he had put it in a zip-lock bag by the door for Carl to eat when he got home. He loves to leave little cards and surprises for Carl to find.

He has such a big heart! He is determined that we are going to take a trip to Australia to visit Hannah on our way to Africa, where we are going to pick up a baby that doesn't have a Mommy and Daddy. He has been planning this trip for months. He has some elaborate plans.

Anytime he sees someone in a wheelchair or with any other kind of visible injury or disability, he immediately bows his head to pray for them to be healed.

Tyler has always been creative in the things he comes up with. But one of our favorite things lately has been watching his creativity with his art. The things he comes up with are amazing! He spends so much time working on art. He chooses staying home to do art over going to the zoo last week! And he keeps sneaking markers and paper into the car to work on while he drives. He also started immediately hanging it up on the wall when he's done, so his art is everywhere! It absolutely kills me to throw it away, so when it's time to take it down I've started taking pictures of my favorites.

This is our family next to a tree with some birds flying around.

This is the list he made and hung up to remind me that he would like me to make salmon and chocolate chip cookies.

This says: This is what I like to do. He wrote all of our names and drew pictures of the foods he likes to eat with us.

Our family with a red bird, black bird and wood pecker.

A lion.

Carl. :-)

Three crosses, and Roman soldiers, with "Our King" written on the cross of Jesus..

He picked a flower for me at school, but it fell out of his back pack somewhere and he never got to give it to me. So he said, "It's ok. I can make you one just like it."

A bird.

He even gave it a tail!

 He has also started making himself costumes.

A "knight suit"

A dragon.

This was his interpretation of Jesus. He pulled his birthday streamers down from his doorway and used them to create a crown of thorns, blood and tear stains.

Ok, so that got to be a lot of pictures of art. I just always want to have these. I love his creativity. It never stops.

This boy melts my heart. He is the answer to so many prayers and we are so thankful for him. We love you Tyler. Happy fifth birthday!