Cooper Andrew has had a season of birthday celebration this fall. It began when Grammy and Grampy threw him an early birthday party in Indiana this September. Then {since his November 27th birthday usually falls on or near Thanksgiving} we hosted his party on the 18th–before all our friends were partied-out! Finally, we gave him our family presents and cards on his special day. This guy is pretty important, and we definitely marked this milestone of his!

We typically throw parties for milestone birthdays like 1st and 5th, so we went big with a magician, pinata, and a transformer themed cake. Cooper had been asking for a pinata for over a year, so we found a party store with several to choose from. He opted for the rocket, which Stephen filled with candy and all sorts of cheap plastic junk toys.

To keep the kids occupied before the magic show, Stephen and Silas manned some carnival-esque games in the garage. Kids threw paper discs onto paper plates for points, knocked down cans with a ball, and tried to bounce ping-pong balls into boxes. I also made a bunch of paper transformer masks for kids to color.

Our magician Alan Smola was fantastic! He truly mesmerized the kids by pulling coins out of their ears, magically making a PB & J sandwich in a paper bag, spitting out streams of colored paper from his mouth, and making foam bunnies appear and switch places. It was a fun show that the kids kept talking about afterwards.

We ate finger foods that I put in foil dishes laid out in a transformer shape. Cooper made a wish, blew out the candles, and shared cake and ice cream with his friends. I was especially thankful his two best buddies were there for his party.

We wrapped up the event with presents and a pinata. Fun times!

On the 27th, I made Cooper’s favorite meal for supper–spaghetti. He opened his cards and presents, and received several phone calls and texts with birthday wishes.

As usual, we marked his height and found that at 3′ 9″ he’s gained three inches since last year!

Cooper, we are thankful for you and the ways you are growing into a compassionate young man with a curiosity about the world.