My Joren is 5 years old

 

Joren made planning his birthday really easy this year.  He told us exactly what he likes: mountain men, Native American stuff, fishing, hunting, trapping, weapons, outdoor adventures, Teepees.. you get the idea. 

  

 

I ordered Joren a new costume and Paul and I made him a teepee to play in.  His friends came dressed in western gear.  Paul took them out back to learn to fish in our pond, set snares in the forest and start a fire in our fire pit.  It was really cold so we enjoyed that fire for a few minutes and then ran in to get warmer.  We decorated and made our own headdresses with out own Indian names, and then made little paper teepees. While the kids carved things out of ivory soap with plastic knives, we taught them about people in the old west. 
For our "cakes, I stuffed cake in ice cream cones decorated like teepees and then served them with big scoops of ice cream on top.  The boys liked making the frosting indian villiage with me. 

Joren loved his new mess kit, tomahawk, dream catcher, davy Crocket book and teepee.  We ended the day by reading the last chapter of "Where the Red Fern Grows".  It was a big book for our littles, but we think they were ready for it.  Eirik had a lot of trouble with the end and sobbed for a long time about those poor dogs.  Joren doesn't sprout tears, but he ruminates over things in other ways.  We had a lot of discussion about life and death and how things work in life. 
It was a pretty special day and Joren felt like a king.  He kept saying, "It's my birthday!"  It was fun to spoil him and try to show him just how special he is to us.