Happy Birthday Cooper!

Coop, on the first day of school.

Coop, on the first day of school last year.

This year Cooper turned FIVE years old!  I don't know, that just sounds so old to me!  The day we brought him home from the hospital, roughly half our marriage ago, seems like such ancient history.  In the past year this sweet preschooler has become a big kid!  Though he is still as sweet as ever, he now looks, talks, and plays like a kid.  We are having so much fun watching him as he now analyzes, reasons, and comes up with solutions and ideas all on his own.    We start grinning the second he says, "Mom, I have an idea..."  because we know it will be something only he could have thought of.  

Cooper has shed his long time love of Thomas the Train (though he still tinkers with them from time to time) and instead prefers to play pretend (his room transforms into a hotel, the kitchen and laundry room into homes of the three little pigs, and sometimes the couch is a baby giraffe cage), build stuff, play soccer, color and play games, both on and off the iPad.  A year ago, I could only get him interested in coloring or painting every once in awhile.  Now he asks to color and concentrates really hard when he does it!  He seems to be thriving in pre-kindergarten and just this past weekend his interest (and ability) in soccer seemed to skyrocket.  Cooper is an amiable chap with several friends that he talks about all the time.  I think five is our favorite age so far.  Of course, we say that every year!

We celebrated Coop turning five with a small party at home and cupcakes to school.  Nonnie got to visit us for an extended weekend, and Ma-Mas, Pa-Pa, Libby, and Bill all came over for his birthday dinner.  A few shots:

Monster's University cupcakes...We took the kids to see this movie in the theater and they both LOVED it.  Cooper was really proud to share the Mike Wazowski cupcakes with his friends at school.

Cooper checking out one of the many lego sets he received for his birthday.  We have replaced Thomas the Train with Legos I think...all he wanted to do all weekend was play Legos.  He even passed up on swimming so he could play with them!  Daddy was very busy helping him put them all together.