Happy 6th Birthday Tyler!

After Tyler received a BYU t-shirt for his birthday, Susie wanted to wear Tyler's old BYU shirt. Of course it went on top of her cute skirt!

We celebrated Tyler's birthday at the canyon. Instead of "friend" parties this year, we decided to let the kids choose something special to do as a family instead. Tyler wanted to go up the canyon, grill hot dogs and brats, open presents, and eat cake up there as well. We loaded up the cars--preparing for the outing almost seemed just as tiresome as throwing a "friend" party. But, at least I wasn't in charge of entertaining of a bunch of rowdy 6 year old boys during the party. Of course the canyon was a bit crowded once we got up there. There were no picnic spots available, so we made due and found a secluded area. The downside to our spot was there was no table. We played musical chairs--we were short a couple chairs. The cake took it's own chair because we didn't want ants to get into the box. The cooler became the table. We also folded the table cloth into fourths and put that on the ground to use as a make-shift table. We hung balloons and streamers from the trees to make the site feel more festive. Tyler thoroughly enjoyed his dinner--a brat. Then we opened presents. His most exciting gift was the junior size basketball. He has been practicing dribbling and shooting ever since and is getting really good! We created a backboard, rim, and basketball for his cake. Then we drew the BYU logo (cougar included) on the backboard. I was really happy with the way the cake turned out. After all the birthday activities, we headed to the river to throw rocks into the water. The kids never tire of all the splashes. I can't believe Tyler is 6 years old! He is growing up...becoming more involved in sports and bigger boy toys. It truly is bittersweet to watch my kids get older. It is fun to watch their personalities develop and see them learn new things, but sad to think they will never be in that stage of their life again.

Happy Birthday Tyler!