Jacob's Birthday

Well it happened.   My baby has turned five and leaves me everyday to go to Kindergarten.  On August 20th Jacob turned five years old.    He is such a fun kid, full of life and energy.  He is such a blessing to our family.  He has everyone wrapped around his little finger!  He worked hard this past year and is reading quite well now.  It was a real challenge for us at first, but once he decided he liked his "reading lessons" he really took off with it.  He is enjoying Kindergarten and likes to play with his friend Jeffery at recess.

He loves all things Scooby-Doo.  He has watched every Scooby-Doo DVD at two different libraries multiple times.  His favorite shirt is Scooby-Doo and his favorite books are Scooby-Doo.

He loves running, jumping playing, and getting his way.  He will still snuggle with us sometimes and he still makes us all laugh.  He thinks of his siblings as his best friends.  Now that Adam is out of the boys room, he and Ben have gotten to be good buddies.  He loves to play "Kick the Can" when it is his turn to pick the activity for Family Home Evening.  He is happy and good natured, but also quite opinionated and stubborn.  I guess those things help balance each other out.  He has a very limited diet, eating Nutella sandwiches with cheese (gross, huh?) usually twice a day.  He has follwed Lizzy's lead and doesn't eat meat (sometimes he will bend this rule for a hot dog).  Thankfully he does eat fruit and salad, too.  We love Jacob and are so happy to have him in our family.

This is Jacob when he is happy and enjoying life.


This is the other flavor of Jacob.  He makes life interesting.  We never know which Jacob we will get :)

Lizzy presenting her gift of Scooby fruit snacks to Jacob (a real treat at our house).  Lizzy is still somewhat of a little mom to Jacob.  Sometimes I will leave Adam or Anna to babysit, but when Jacob is having a hard time, it is Lizzy who knows just what to do and how to help Jacob.  She has always known what to do to help him.

Jacob wanted a cookie cake.  This is the recipe the kids like best.

I know this is not the highest quality photograph, but I love this picture.  I love that he still likes to snuggle his mom.


Adam and Jacob have a very playful relationship.  Even though Jacob is so much smaller they are wrestling buddies and Adam knows how to motivate Jacob with competition.  He gave Jacob several packs of gum.

 

Ben gifted Jacob the favorite gift of the evening.  It was one of those punching balloons but it was in the shape of an animal.  Ben is amazing at teaching Jacob.  He sets up all sorts of reward systems to help Jacob with his behavior.  He helps him with chores in fun ways and even has taught him things like how to pour his own drinks.  Ben puts up with a lot from Jacob and continues to amaze us with his longsuffering and kindness  towards Jacob.  They also have a lot of fun together, though.  As the older ones are gone more and more they still have each other.

Anna is the activity director of the four younger children, Jacob included.  She always has a fun idea or game for them all to play together.  She can get everyone excited about something no one else has ever thought of before, and Jacob loves it.  He is at a great age for pretend play and I never get tired of hearing what they are up to that particular day.  Here is Anna presenting her gift to Jacob.

Ben and Greg made a treasure hunt for Jacob because that is what Jacob wanted.  He had a great time reading and searching for clues.  The cake was his treasure. 

I love the part each of our children play in our family. I love the unique relationships they have with each other.  I feel like they are helping so much in the raising of each other.  I am so proud of all of them.  I love birthdays because we get a chance to spotlight the place "one" has in our family.  Jacob we love you.  We love the sunshine and fun you bring to our family.  You are a blessing to us all.