Tyler MacGinnis turns Seven!

Isn't this a handsome school picture?
So my sweet buddy boy turned SEVEN yesterday! Can you believe it? I feel old! I thought I would post this scrapbook page/letter that I wrote for him several months ago (I'll translate the letter so you don't have to rotate your computer monitor every 2 sentences!!)

I realized yesterday that I have told Tyler all of these things before, but I'd never read him this letter or given him the scrapbook page so he could read it and remember how much I love him! So I did it last night. Maybe not the best timing. Poor boy was so anxious to open his presents and eat cake that he kept asking me, "Where are you?" pointing to the massive amounts of tiny writing! His way of saying, 'How much more is there mom?". I hurried through it and realized that we could read it again another time. But I'm sure someday he'll appreciate it! Here's a little glimpse into my sweet Tyler's heart:

"Tyler, I love you so much! You melt my heart with your thoughtfulness. I hope you never get too old to love your family. You are the sweetest, most tender hearted boy. You can sense when someone has had a hard day and you walk right up and offer a hug and a listening ear... at six! You amaze me. I admire your energy! I can't tell you how many times I've watched you and wished that I could be you for just one hour! You never run out of steam! You are such a smart boy. You are so proud to be able to read all on your own. As soon as you could read a full book without any help you begged to get your own Book of Mormon so that you could read to our family. You are such a good brother. You take such good care of your little sisters and your baby brother. You make him bottles and turn on Dora for Emily and you are even teaching Maddie to read and write. You are a wonderful example to your friends and you always want to help people make good choices. You are strong willed and in independent. And you let us know often that you have strong opinions about the way things should be done. Once you have made up your mind about something it is very difficult to get you to change it. Daddy and I have to tell ourselves that we would rather have a smart kid who can act for himself than one who will just follow the crowd and go along with things. Never forget who you are Tyler. Don't try to be someone else. You are an amazing kid and you have so much potential. Always remember that. Remember who you are and who you want to become. We have high hopes for you. You are so talented and smart and a strong leader. Be careful how you use that power of leadership. You have a responsibility to be a good example and to hold strong to your values. Make up your mind now what kind of person you are going to be and then never let go of that. Be that person every day in everything that you do and you will be happy in life. Remember that you are loved and important and you are going to do great things. I love you bud. Don't ever forget that! Love Mom."

We had a fun day with Tyler. We started off the day with Pancakes and Eggs with bacon and cheese in them (Tyler's favorite) and orange juice. Then I brought treats into his classroom and that was fun! After school we made his birthday cake and he played with friends. After dinner he jumped up on the counter so he could rinse off his dinner plate and he accidentally sat on the side of his cake! He was so embarrassed! We just laughed and tried to smooth out the frosting and ended up just turning it around so it wasn't noticeable! So cute!
Here's a picture of him blowing out his birthday candles! We were going to do an Iron Man mask on the top of it, but we had to fix it all and ran out of time before family arrived to eat it! Oh well, he didn't seem to mind!
This was definitely a hit. We got him two Bakugon balls. They are little plastic balls that transform into little battle robot kind of things. They have a magnet inside of them and they come with a magnetic card so when you roll the ball onto the card it pops them open into their battle stance! Pretty cool. Anyway he LOVED them and took them to school today to play at recess!

All in all it was a great day! We love you so much Tyler! We're so happy you are a part of our family! I'm glad that all of our kids have such a great big brother like you to take care of them and love them. You are the best! I love you Bud!