Cooper Dennis is S E V E N

Oh, Cooper.

I have THE BEST memories of him being born, feeling like a total superhero when he finally arrived, hanging with him in the hospital, just the two of us on our own little babymoon. 

He was a breastfed baby who GAINED WEIGHT in the HOSPITAL and slept for 10 hours in a row at 2 weeks old.  A total unicorn.  The sweetest baby in the world, so little trouble and so much joy that his very presence convinced us to have another right away.

Then, when he was 9 month old and I was pregnant again, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE and has stayed loose for the last 6 wonderful years and three perfect months.

He's a total handful, an impossible little elf-- so mart! so sporty! so wild!

He wanted an ice cream cake, so I did my best.  I have to say, though, that the whole project was doomed practically from its inception because I had 3 cake pans, but they were not all the same size, and by now, you know I am way too impatient to do the one small thing that would make the whole project work better like WAIT and re-use a pan or even go buy another pan or at least take everything out of my one huge nightmare corner cupboard where you know what? I could probably find a matching layer pan.  Anywho.

 Not the worst looking cake ever.  BUT JUST WAIT.

 We decorated the table the night before, which is my favorite birthday thing.

 Ben made a funny sign that Cooper read aloud and chuckled over

 We "hid" his bike but assumed he would see it right away.

 Birthdays are for candy at the breakfast table, right?

 Something happened to this cake in the freezer, and I was sad to see it when I SET A DAMN ALARM on a Sunday so I could have time to let the cake sit out before Cooper woke up.

 Here he is rounding the corner to see his spread.

 I thought he would notice the bike right away.

 But he went straight to the present pile.

 And tore in.

 The other kids amused themselves.

 Still opening.

 A book!  Was his favorite present!  He's the BEST!

 STILL HAS NO CLUE THERE'S A BIKE BEHIND HIM.

 Finally noticed it!

 He immediately tested it out.

 Here comes a notably ugly cake!

 Notice that he already ate a giant brick of dark chocolate

 SO SWEET.

 A pretty good morning.

 (Harry did an English project that was darling-- crafting with the dictionary is my fave way to craft)

 I made cupcakes for Cooper's class for today

 We saw our final 3 Buckeys!

 And checked out a couple of new parks.

 Before hitting up our favorite birthday bar for UNLIMITED ORANGE SODA because we are the parents of the year, after all.

 Jack had a dive lesson

 Then harry and Cooper BOTH had baseball games, and I took the little kids to Chipotle at the birthday kid's request

 Jack and Dorothy ended their evening with cake on the deck, but Cooper said he actually doesn't like cake, which would have been helpful to know before I MADE ONE.

 Book club!

 And cupcake frosting for me to close out a great little birthday!

And this happened because OF COURSE IT DID