FIVE

I can hardly utter the words from mouth...........I have a five year old! Seriously. Wow. Not only do I have a five year old but a child who will be in Kindergarten next year. Unbelievable. Jack is such a joy and a fun-loving kid. He definitely has his moments of being VERY strong-willed but he is so full of compassion and love that we are really working to channel his strong-willed self for good. It's not always easy but just in the past few days we've seen some real progress in some attitude type things that we've been working on with Jack. Just tonight I had a conversation with a parent of a kid from preschool who was in his class last year and she was telling me how she hears about Jack a lot from her daughter and even the other teachers. She was just sharing with me how well loved he is because of what a great kid he is. It made be proud that he is building a good reputation for himself when he is away from us at school! I hope it continues.

This year Jack elected to have a smaller birthday celebration with only 1 friend from preschool. He picked his best buddy at school and wanted to go check out Monkey Joe's - a newly opened bounce house place near our house. We took Joseph and his family to dinner at Steak and Shake (Jack's choice) and then headed to Monkey Joe's for some great fun.......you know, the kind of fun that absolutely wears kids out and makes them sleep really well at night! Ha!

We couldn't go on Jack's actual birthday so we went the night before. In honor of Monkey Joe's we had monkey cupcakes!

I was pleased with the way they turned out! Thank you, Pinterest! Monkey Joe's was nice. The boys really loved this Pirate Ship slide.

I could NOT get them to sit still for 2 seconds for a picture.

Oh well. We really enjoyed sitting and talking with Joseph's parents and getting to know them better. Tatum really enjoyed checking things out too.

When we left Monkey Joe's Jack informed us that was the best birthday ever. I'm pretty sure he's said that for the past few years! But, it makes me happy when he feels very celebrated. On Tuesday I had to leave pretty early for a full day of work. But, we managed to make some waffles for breakfast before I had to get out of the door. Please excuse Jack's lack of a shirt in this picture - he rolled out of bed right before this picture.

He went to preschool on his birthday which was fun because they sang to him in chapel and then he took ice cream sandwiches to share with his friends. Tuesday night we had our family celebration with candles on his monkey cupcakes.

He opened all his cards that had come in the mail and he read almost every word on each card. And, when I say he read them - I mean it! He is becoming such a good reader. I am constantly impressed with his ability to figure words out and at his attention span for reading. I have a reader! He wants to stop and read everything. It's really cool! And, he was excited about each and every card!

One cool thing about being five is getting five dollar bills in your cards! He kind of racked up on $5 bills so thanks to all our family for that!!!

His favorite part of the evening was opening presents.....

Jack's new "thing" is legos. He got a lego set from us and this lego base from Tatum. He is a happy kid!

He also got this cool book from Gigi and Papa!

We had a great day!

Happy Birthday, Jackson Robert! Our life has been so full since you joined us 5 years ago! We just can't imagine life without you and are so glad God picked us to be your parents! My prayer for you is that as you grow you will love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I also pray that you will serve him with your whole being and that I will never stand in the way of that. You are a precious soul and a special kid! Thanks for being you! We love you!!!!