The Fifth

Cooper turned five a few weeks ago. He started counting down to the big day in February. Every morning he would stand in front of the calendar and ask how many more days until his birthday.

I stayed up late the night before wrapping his presents and putting up some decorations.

I had a hard time pinning down what he wanted for each of his meals. After many mind changes he settled on strawberry pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate milk for breakfast and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

We spent a chunk of the day playing outside, which helped Cooper to wait patiently for Bryan to come home so the whole family could be present for the gift opening. I reached into my stash of clothes and books and pulled out a few things for Cooper.

Cooper asked for an apple pie instead of a cake. I made it, but we pulled it out of the oven shortly before bedtime. That means it was too hot for safe consumption. Instead we served the ice cream originally meant to go with the pie. A word of warning, lit candles in ice cream requires a very fast rendition of "Happy Birthday" to avoid melting the frozen dairy treat.

The kids ate the pie for breakfast the next morning. It's fruit, which is totally okay for breakfast, right?

One of the few gifts that we bought was a Lego Batmobile. He had fun putting it together the next afternoon.

I asked Cooper the same birthday questions that I asked Peter. Here are his answers:

FAVORITE FOOD: meatballs (True, he really loves meatballs)

FAVORITE ANIMAL: lion

FAVORITE BOOK: batman

FAVORITE COLOR: blue

FAVORITE SHOW: Wild Kratts

FAVORITE MOVIE: Space Dogs (I think he's seen this once.)
FAVORITE SONG: I Am a Child of God
FAVORITE BOARD GAME: checkers (I'm not sure if he's actually played this)
FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Mario Kart
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Go to dinosaur museums
FAVORITE MEMORY FROM BEING 4: Playing with friends
FAVORITE PLACE: Thanksgiving Point
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: sweeping (I have no idea...)

FRIENDS: Parker, Phoebe, Jaedyn, Jack, Eliza, Cat, Peter

He had a pretty good day. His celebration didn't end there though. In keeping with the age precedence that we set with Peter, Cooper had his first real birthday party. 

But that's a topic for another post.