Super Cooper is 3!

 Our little buddy is 3 years old!  Super Cooper has a big personality (of course you probably all know that).  We gave him some fun gifts to go with this, including a superman cape, mask and some new Spiderman undies.  He "flew" around the house saying "to the rescue!"

What do we love about Cooper?..... Everything!  We love him because he is so loving, cuddly, fun, emotional, smart, athletic, cute (good thing for that), dimples, beautiful blue eyes, and just 100% all boy.  He definitely challenges us all, but we love him for being....Cooper!

 Our elf, David, made a very unexpected and exciting visit!  He came on Cooper's birthday, with a letter for both Cooper and me.  David wished us both a happy birthday, he had donuts and candles for us to enjoy, and he brought balloons and gifts.  Of course, he reminded us to be good boys as Christmas will be here before you know it.  David stayed all day at our house, he fed Sandy, our pet frog, and we made sure to tell him what we wanted for Christmas (a fish tank!)  David was the best birthday gift we received!  He had to fly back home that night to work at Santa's Workshop, but we will see him again in December.

 Cooper's other presents included a golf glove to go with his new golf set.  Cooper hits with his left, so we had to think opposite with the hand he wears his glove on.  This is going to be tricky as none of us are left-handed people.

 John Deere lawn mower tractor- an exact replica of Daddy's!

 A new lifejacket as Cooper gets WAY too sweaty in the neoprene one we bought him last year.

 Sporting his new monkey backpack since his old one was looking pretty nasty.  Love Daddy's expression here.

 No surprise, but Cooper requested Buffalo Wild Wings for his birthday dinner.  As mentioned earlier, he is 100% all BOY!  BWW's made him a special birthday crown while we were there.  Grammy joined us for dinner and then we headed across the road to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert.

At Coldstone, they sang Cooper a song, he honestly listened for .1 second and then went back to eating his ice cream. 

 We had a combined birthday party again this year.  With our birthdays only 3 weeks apart, it makes it easier on family and friends to celebrate one time.  Instead of our usual theme parties at home, we ventured to Fairfax Pool for a pool party.  Mommy fretted for a month about the weather and probably jinxed it.  The day of the party was chilly and it rained towards the end.  Good news is that the kids really didn't seem to care and Daddy was the one who got in the pool with us :)  Above was our invite, minus the personal information.

 A quick glimpse of what the pool looked like... empty with the exception of our party!

 With Cooper and I both celebrating, the picnic table was ridiculously full of presents.  Our parents were trying to keep up with the cards, reminding us to use our manners, etc...

 Me and Finley posing for what seems to be the only posed photo of the day (and Mommy apologizes as she was not doing so well with pictures.... too busy!)

We did a mass "THANK YOU" to our family and friends.  We loved the company, the party and the gifts!

Mommy doesn't want you to think she totally slacked as hostess at this party.  She made fun favors (freezies with a cute tag) and Bubble Tape with a beach ball tag. 

Hi Finley :)

Cupcakes by the one and only Jeannie!  We loved the floating bears in the pool!

The day after our pool party, we celebrated Father's Day.  Thanks to Heather, we made Daddy this idea.  "Our Daddy Rocks" with a rock frame that Mommy made and a collage inside of our favorite photos from the year.  Daddy took it to work.

Mommy put together a "Eat, Drink and Be Hairy" kit for Daddy and our Godfather's (Uncle Matt, skip over this part since we haven't seen you yet).  The kit included a mustache mug, Dad's Rootbeer, a Slim Jim, peel and stick mustaches and a gift card to Chipotle.  The Dads loved it and they all looked like Tom Selleck for the day.

Besides the handmade gifts, Daddy received tickets to a Twins Game and a day with Keith St. Onje, the #1 barefooter in the world.  Hoping to get some pictures from their day skiing as Keith posts them on his website.  Happy Father's Day Daddy!  You are the bestest Dad.  We love all of the fun we have with you.  XOXOXOXO!

We celebrated Father's Day with Papa on the St. Croix River.  All of Mommy's siblings (our aunts and uncles) and cousins were able to make it.  We had a day of fun at the beach together.

 Uncle Jim (youngest), Mommy (middle), Papa and Auntie Stefanie (oldest sibling)

 Papa, Daddy, Uncle Bruce and Uncle Jim... The Dads

 Cousins

Sandcastle building with Cooper

 Cooper had Camp Come and Play Monday-Thursday last week.  This is the same toddler preschool he went to during the school year.  He had 4 days of fun including a camping day, beach day, and wheels day (pictures above and below).  Cooper loved camp and he felt very "big" going to school instead of me this time.

His cutest art project from the week was this long poster with his footprints.  The title on the poster is "A Walk in God's World."  We hung it from his art clips in his room.  Sorry that the photo would not turn for the blog.

 So what did I do while Cooper was at camp?!?!?  I went on a zillion errands with Mom, but she let me have gumballs, Starbucks, and other treats.  I also had a playdate at the park with Hadley (Heather's littlest as Finley had soccer camp).  I think I discovered the secret of all of the fun Mommy and Cooper had when I was at school.  Mommy hopes I don't get any crazy ideas after our fun week together :)  Next blog post will include our first waterski outing, Kalahari pictures, and the Twins Game!

Complete Randomness

 Welcome to the most random post possibly ever.  Nothing seems to connect here, but I will try!  Daddy likes to have us take a picture each year next to the flowering crabapple tree.  The tree continues to tower over us, so in reality, it looks like we are shrinking.

 My first photo with the crabapple at age 1 above and below....

 Cooper and I have been busy with watering the newly planted flowers.  One day, we heard Mommy scream and jump back.  While winding up the hose, she saw two beady eyes looking at her and discovered it was a tree frog.  Cooper tried to speak froggy to it, but it stayed put in the hose reel.  I think Daddy had to get him out in order for Mom to touch the hose reel again.

 Mom's principal and his family have become friends of ours the past several years and they have decided to move to Sarasota.  They decided to sell a lot of things, so we picked up a new smoker grill and ironically, a pet frog.  The frog needs to be fed once every 3 days and it lives in a small, spring water aquarium.  Seems pretty easy so far.  He is noisy when our house falls quiet and he makes silly squeaky/croaky sounds.  On our drive home from getting him (or her, who knows), I decided to name him Sandy.  We don't know any Sandy's, Mom/Dad aren't sure what prompted this name, but it stuck.  So Sandy has now joined our family on our living room shelf.  You can see the little critter in the corner (NOT the big green rock) in the picture above.

 Cooper likes him a lot.  He checks on him to make sure he is swimming around each day.

 The weather finally seems to be cooperating, so we made a quick decision to hit a local park.  It was a nice day.  I insist on walking out on this "scary" dock that hangs above a creek.  The scary dock does not sit on stilts, it is suspended from the ground/ledge.  It creeps our Mommy out.

 Nice cheesy smile Coop!

 We stopped by the animal cages to see what was going on.  The black bear was sitting up and staring at us while chomping on some green leaves.  Borderline cute and scary.

 My parents received this picture text from Dan and Nancy in New Mexico last week.  They are flying out to visit them for a long weekend in July.  They are going during the Spanish Market, so they are super excited for the visit with good friends while experiencing their amazing view from their backyard and exploring their culture.

Mommy's college roommate, Rita, came home from California for a family/friends hosted baby shower.  Mommy hasn't seen Rita in a few years now so she was so happy to see her.  Rita is having a baby girl (Ruby) in August.  We can't wait to meet the little princess!

 Daddy developed a wound care/hyperbaric clinic at the hospital he works at and they received an award.  I am quoting the hospital's announcement here... "St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric medicine has received the prestigious Center of Distinction Award from Healogics, Inc., a leading wound care management company. The award marks the Center as one of the top wound care centers in the country and is given to facilities that have outstanding patient outcomes for 12 consecutive months."  Way to go Daddy!

 Mommy survived her 13th year of teaching.  Survived is maybe not the right choice as she had a wonderful group of Kindergarten learners this year.  The last few days was the survival part because thanks to 2 additional snow days, they had to go into this week.  In all of her teaching years, she has never finished school in mid-June.  Summer sure is going to fly by!  Cooper and I went to Mommy's school for their last day awards ceremony.  It was very, very, long and Cooper became annoyed with all of the clapping.  We stayed long enough to see a really cool goodbye slideshow students and staff made for their exiting principal.  Mommy quickly snapped this photo of Cooper and I above because she thought it was cute and funny how we just went and sat down on the rug like the "big" kids.  She didn't even have to ask us to sit down quietly with criss-cross applesauce legs :)

 I started instructional t-ball this week.  It is only once a week for 8 weeks.  We practiced throwing, catching, hitting and running the bases.  I have 3 buddies from preschool also in t-ball, which made the loooong 60 minutes go by quickly.  We won't play any games this year as it is only an instructional and basic skills program.  I did ask where the rest of my equipment was when Mommy handed me my glove.  After playing hockey this winter, I didn't know some sports could be so simple!

 Maybe the best part of playing t-ball is playing at the park afterwards.  I am working on using the monkey bars with minimal help and Cooper is working on climbing the tallest and most dangerous apparatus.  

We hope you enjoyed our most random photos from these past two crazy-busy weeks.  We look forward to sharing pictures next week from our combined birthday party this weekend and Cooper's 3rd birthday this week.  Where has time gone?!?!?