Cooper's Birthday Party

 I spent a lot of time in the days before Christmas 2013 agonizing over how to handle Cooper's birthday party. I waffled back and forth long enough that my inability to make a decision made the decision for me. I didn't know if I should try and do a birthday party within a few days of Christmas. Christmas, in my mind, is this big ol' mountain that we have to cross before we can even think about anything beyond it. I tried to remind myself that I needed to think about a birthday party for Cooper, but as all things go with Christmas, my mind was cluttered with numerous other Christmasy things that needed to be done and the reality of a birthday party slipped my mind. On several occasions. So, I ultimately "decided" to wait until a few weeks after the new year and have a birthday party then. I felt much better about it. Less stress and worry about how a birthday party would be received in the days after Christmas (when people should just be relaxing in that post Christmas glow), and more time to focus just on the birthday party and not have Christmas cluttering up my mind.
I have decided that low key birthday parties are my thing. And what is more low key than a movie? Nothing. Little prep work, little execution work. Perfect. We went with the Monsters University movie and themed the whole party after that. Easy peasy.

 The kids got bored before the movie was actually over, but I had anticipated as much and just moved the party right along to present opening. My older two really wanted to help, but couldn't seem to remember that they were standing in front of all the party guests in their attempts.

I have found that I am not a great cake maker. So, cupcakes are just the thing to save me. I can do "fun" things like put them in the shape of a 5. If you were thinking that it's an "S", it can stand for Super Cooper.

Ruthann, I THINK The Boy had a good time. This picture says it all... ;)

This picture just happens to show Cooper's namesake- The MINI Cooper.

 

After I hopped them all up on sugar, we did a treasure hunt (also easy with minimal execution work) to find the party bags.  We have this little cardboard treasure chest that I bought for Kaydance's 5th birthday party that I have used more times that I could count for birthday parties, singing time at church and preschool. I had to tape it up to fix it this time, but it is my favorite birthday party purchase and I am so glad I bought it.

 

Overall, I really liked having the birthday party a few weeks after the actual birthday and I will probably be doing that from here on out. Happy Birthday Cooper.