It is really hard to believe that Joshua is now 5 years old.  A lot of our friends said that when he was born (having three older sisters to mother him) that he would not walk or talk until he was 4.  But even though he is a little spoiled, he is not rotten.  He has turned out to walk and talk for himself.  For those who have not seen him lately, boy can he talk.

Joel and I had decided  that we were not going to have big birthdays this year for the kids but Joshua just did not understand it.  He started talking about his birthday, after he attended a party for a little boy from church.  So we decided that we would give him a birthday party.  He wanted the theme to be “Spiderman”.  We made this a family project.

In the process we discovered that Rachel is an excellent cake decorator.  I made two cakes and Rebekah made the icing and Rachel decorated the cake.

Rachel and Joshua and the SpiderMan cake before the birthday party.

Joshua also requested a smiley face cake.

Joshua had a great party.  A lot of our friends from church attended and some of our American friends were  also there.

These are three friends from his Sunday School Class at church.

Our Friends, Neighbors and church family that attended Joshua’s Party.

We gave Joshua a somewhat traditional Brazilian birthday party.  Complete with the traditional birthday foods of vatapá (a shrimp sauce that goes over rice) and a traditional rice and chicken dish.  We also had candies (dulces) and salty snacks (salgados).  We were thankful that our maid was available to help make all the special foods that we needed for  the special Birthday.  Joshua  and our maid have a very special relationship and we were glad that she could participate in the party.