My birthday-Henry.

Yesterday, we celebrated my 3rd birthday with my 3rd party (I hope I get 4 parties next year!).

I was excited all day to blow out the candles on my Lightning McQueen cake. I sang very loudly then blew them out in one puff. (By the way, I am three, but we could only find two candles.)

The best birthday surprise is that we had visitors! Mama's friends from high school, Miss Mindy and Mister Kevin, came to our house and spent the night with their kids Ethan and Hannah. Ethan and I had a great time playing with all of my toys.

Even Hannah liked that train. It made me feel better that someone else has a little sister who is always messing everything up.

Later, we got out my new fishing poles (thanks Aunt Molly and Uncle Michael!) and did a little fishing in our "pond."

But being boys got the best of us and we spent the rest of the time sword fighting with our fishing poles. We had so much fun that we stayed up until 10pm watching nature movies where crocodiles eat other animals. Then this morning, we pole-fought and chased each other around, wrestled and mostly got really worked up. It was great!

Hannah and June tried to steer clear of the chaos. She checked out our DVD collection and approved of our kids movies.June tried to chase us, but couldn't keep up.

Before they left, we all lined up on the couch for a group photo. Good luck getting the two goodballs to calm down for a good shot.

At least we're all looking up in this one.

Ethan and I are already good friends. He invited me to come to his house over Christmas. He says he has a pond and his dad has lots of tractors and trucks. I can't wait to go there!

Thanks for coming to visit us Ethan and Hannah! We had an awesome time. Try to get your mom and dad to stop again on your way back home! `

Henry's birthday cake-Juner.

Remember how mama said that no 2 or 3 year old needed fancy decorations or cakes?

Well, she's a sucker, because tonight things quickly escalated when she started on Henry's cake.

She started out intending to make cupcakes, then remembered she had a car pan and we ended up with Lightning McQueen (sort of).

She got this far, but now it's 11:30 and she decided this is enough.

Bubba's going to love this!

Seibert Thanksgiving- Henry.

On Friday, mama recovered from her self diagnosed "Grease Belly" to pull herself out of bed and make the trip to Uncle Kevin's and Aunt Elizabeth's for Seibert Thanksgiving.

We had a great time that included Uncle Kevin and his eagle eyes spotting a house fire and calling in the fire department (with a very unhelpful 911 operator), playing in the basement, and a night parade.

The Archbold Festival of Lights kicks off it's season with an awesome 45+ minutes night parade. Mama was skeptical about it, but now she never wants to go to a day parade again. Because, if you're going to have a parade in the dark, you really have to mean it. And all of the entries this year really meant it. We stole a couple pictures from the Seiberts' blog, but none of them do justice to what a fire truck decked out in thousands of lights really looks like.

Our favorite floats included the 15 foot tall cow, the helicopter, the working water fountain, the port-a-potty on wheels, the toilet on wheels, and the working steam engine being pulled by a semi (you could hear that one coming from miles away.) But the best was the dragon that actually breathed fire!

Head over to the Seibert blog to see the videos of the train and the dragon. It's worth it!

Besides Thanksgiving, we celebrated three birthdays! Natalie is 4, I am 3 and Oliver is 2! We celebrated with mini pigs in a blanket and cupcakes all hand rolled and hand decorated by Evie, Natalie and Madelyn.

We were all excited to blow out our candles and get down to eating our cupcakes.

Evie was a little sad she didn't have a candle to blow out.

But she cheered up once she got her own chocolate cupcake.

Natalie had her own special birthday crown that she wore all day (the party landed on her actual birthday).

Stinkers had a cupcake too, even though she was feeling sick (which happens every time we come home to see her. We think she's faking it so we don't kiss her too much.).

Sorry to everyone else, but mama has declared Oliver her favorite for the time being. She says she's like me minus the knees, elbows, screaming, and hyperness. He even let her cuddle him for almost 10 seconds straight. Plus she heard him say "Aunt Becky" and that's about all it takes (get working Tessa).

Later we had a mass present opening.

Natalie got a pony!

I got this awesome hot wheels playset from the Tallers. You push your car up the roller coaster and it goes down a huge hill, around a loop and through a shark's mouth! Sometimes it makes it, sometimes it doesn't. Oh and somewhere in there, a pizza flies out. I could hardly wait to get home to open it and I spent all day playing with it. And mama likes it too because I sit (sort of) quietly at the table and I won't let her put batteries in it. I told her the shark would scare me. She says that it looks like that shark has a lot of sass anyway.

Oh, and June and Tessa were there too, but they mostly sat onlaps and tried to stay away from the craziness, so mama tended not to notice them. Sorry girls. To be honest, mama didn't notice many of the kids because they were awlays down in the big basement. Mama instead got to spend time out shopping and unstairs enjoying herself. She did feel kind of bad that she didn't spend much time with the kids, but it felt almost like a real vacation!

On Saturday night, we went to a wedding where mama saw lots of people she knew in high school. (Did you get any good pictures, Miss Bridget?) Then we left stright from the wedding and drove back to Nama and PawPaw's house. We didn't get there until very late and got right back in the car four hours later. We wanted to leave early because route 77 is the main road through the mountains and the weather and traffic were supposed to be bad. We made it almost half way through Virginia before the traffic stopped and then it took up 90 minutes to drive 10 miles. Luckily we out of the mountains (and fog) by then and were able to get home on back roads.

Now we're just trying to recover and get the house put back together before our next guests arrive tomorrow!

Introducing Cecilia.

Before we finish our Thanksgiving update, we have a confession. We've been feeling pretty bad that we haven't sent out an official blog welcome to our newest friend- Cecelia Joy.

Cecelia was born October 23 (over a month ago, we know. We're sorry Miss Jennifer!). We wish we could be back in Wisconsin to give you a squeeze, Cecelia, but we'll settle for checking your new blog for updates on life with your 3 older sisters!

Check out our newest link for some of the cutest Packer cheerleaders we've ever seen at the Family of Pink.

Thanksgiving at the Coopers-June.

Sorry for the long stretch between updates! We headed back to Ohio for Thanksgiving and mama took a break from blogging for a while. Here's what we've been up to.

We started out by driving to Columbus and spending the night at Aunt Katie and Uncle Adam's house. All of our parents were impressed that Henry, Sadie and I all slept together in one room. It's a wonder what kids will sleep through when they don't go to bed until 10:30 pm.

We visited an indoor playground on Wednesday (Aunt Kate, did you get any good pictures?) and then we headed up to Nama and PawPaw's house.

Before we had our Thanksgiving feast, we celebrated Henry's 3rd birthday! Henry was a little reluctant to put on the birthday cake hat until mama told him he couldn't open any presents unless it was on his head. Then he refused to take it off.
Henry got a lot of fun presents, but unlike prior years, he realized when there were more presents to open. Which meant he'd rip open a present, say thank you, drop it and look for more. (We assure all of you gift givers that he has had a chance to open up most of the presents now and they are a big hit.)Aunt Girl scored this car that not only races across the room, but also plays a really long clip of "Rock around the Clock." That culminated in hours of Henry roping any willing person to sit in the hallway and race the car back and forth. With Aunt Girl, the car always came up to fast, "knocking" her over, which was met with many, many, many excited choruses of "Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you OKAY?"

Mama and Aunt Katie decorated this special racetrack cake for Henry's birthday. They were really pleased at how well it turned out.

Mama was so pleased that Henry has started singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and joined in when the candles were lit in his honor.

Mama took every chance she could to get a cuddle in with Baby Sades. Sadie upped the cute factor by giving her new baby kisses.

Then Sadie ditched the football and headed out to the porch to soak up some sun.

She even (sort of) tolerated it when mama tried to sneak hair barrettes in our hair.

And where was I all weekend? I was hanging out Mister Anthony.

And taking baths (again Aunt Kate, send over those cute pics of me and Sadie in the tub!)

And playing "Whoa Horsey" with GG.

And just acting silly with PawPaw.

We stuck around the Cooper's a little longer because mama wasn't feeling well (she ate so much junk food on Tuesday and Wednesday, she didn't even really get to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal, but she didn't enjoy sleeping the rest of the day). But we liked spending extra time with our GG's.

And in keeping with the season, here's the top 5 things we're thankful for at the Cooper Thanksgiving party:
1. That the kids went down for a nap before dinner was served so Mama and Papa got to eat without anyone demanding more jello.
2. That PawPaw has such an engaging basement filled with great toys. We probably saw Henry for about 2 hours all weekend.
3. That Henry's word knack has spilled over into nicknames for the whole family. Grandma is now "Grams Crackers" and PawPaw is now "Pawps."
4. Turkey, GG's cranberry jello, Aunt Tia's scalloped cabbage, Aunt Kate's Fruit Pizza, and Nama's Candy Sweet Potatoes.
5. That everyone was able to spend a great day with us!

School pictures.

Henry had his pictures taken at school, and let's just say they weren't that successful.

This one looks like his teachers had to bribe him with a trip to the playground and he reluctantly agreed to have hispicture taken, but don't you think for one second that he's going to like it.

This one turned out better. But considering they were asking $20 for 1- 5x7 and 2 wallets, we declined. Instead, we scanned the prints and treated ourselves to mint chocolate chip milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A instead. (Hint, hint, papa.)

Art update.

So my original plan of scanning Herny's artwork as he created it didn't really work out. The pile was getting unruly (and that much uncontained pper around June is really just asking for it), so today's naptime was devoted to scanning. Here's some of the latest masterpieces.

From School:

"Scarecrow"

"Halloween Stamps"

"Glued-on Turkeys"

"Pumpkin with glue squares"

"A Fruit-ful Spirit?"

"I'm a crazy candy corn man. Give me some candy!"

"Turkey" (abstract)

Art from the Science Museum:

Rubbing from the Dinosaur exhibit. Henry is really into dinosaurs these days. Our favorite book is Dinosaurumpus, a story that is about dinosaurs having an all night dance party- obviously. In addition to his love for dinos, Henry likes to mix up words too. So everything is rhymed. We can't say "Dinosaurumpus," we have to say "Dinosaurgunkus." This morning, we went upstairs to get Juners out of bed and Henry just kept yelling "Oboozeegus" over and over. When I finally aked him what he meant, he explained that Oboozeegus means "Mama, Papa, Juner, me!" Pretty cute.

"Giraffe" from Science Storybook.

Art from home:

"Pumpkin" collaboration of Henry and Mama. Henry drew the left eye and the smile.

The famous curious George stamp set and a few finger stamps.

"Dots and Stickers" from the Mama's clever trick collection. I figured out that I can keep Herny occupied for a good 20 minutes if I tell him to make dots all over the paper then cover each dot with a tiny sticker.

Henry's Super Reader certificate. He earned this from playing the online games for SuperWhy. "More Dots and Stickers" I'm really pleased with this one because this is the first drawing where it looks like he's actually trying to stay inside the lines of George instead of just scribbing all over the page. There's hope for Henry's creative side yet.