north georgia state fair

The highlight of our fair experience this year was the bmx stunt show. Cooper thought it was the coolest thing ever!



He watched and cheered with the crowd as they did their stunts, there were some pretty sick tricks.



Oh man, do we have a bmx-er on our hands here soon?



And the other love of the afternoon - SKEE ball!

the big three

The little one at three months now. And he is one big boy already.

mine, I mean his car collection

Cooper has a serious thing for cars and motorcycles and I love to pull them all out once in awhile and arrange them by color. We counted up the stats for Hot Wheels - 69, Cars movie cars - 16, diecast cars - 7, and motorcycles - 14. I loved how they looked all lined up so I snapped a few pics. I don't think this will ever get old.

party playdate

We had small playdate party for Cooper a few days later and had his two good friends over... T (mom Brittany) and Hadley (mom Dana)


A little bit of a ball theme for the day.


I wanted it to be pretty chill and just let them play, so one of Cooper's favorites is jumping on the bed.


Then we went outside to play with the parachute and balls but they ended up just wanting to throw the balls around.


Then we had lunch - ball shaped food - meatballs, round noodles, grapes, peas and edamame.


A bag full of balls to take home.


And then the cupcakes! mmmmm



All the kids enjoying their eats.


Playing with Hadley's gift to Cooper at the end. They had a great time together. Kids are so fun to watch play. Happy Birthday Coops!

two-per

Invites to our family party this year. Yes the little Coops is TWO!


Cooper and some presents from mom and dad and the grandparents. He thought birthdays were turning into something pretty cool.


After much debate we ended up getting Cooper his first bike. I was closed to getting a trike but he has some love for bikes these days and his eyes lit up at the store on the bike so that's what we came home with.


Setting up for the party later.



Party loot


Streamers and homemade circle streamers hung down from our loft.


I sewed paper circles together - 8 colors, 4 circles per sheet, and 8 sheets per color handcut. You do the math.


That afternoon we took the bike out for the first test ride.


Steve a little jealous of the bike


And what is a birthday or any day without a game of chase. This game never gets old (for Cooper at least)


Me and my birthday boy.


Hanging out with brother.


Later for the party, singing and blowing out candles.


The inside of the cake cut, SURPRISE everybody!


Yummy cake mom!


Eating with the cousins.


Opening presents later.


An attempted family pic, what a fun day for a two year old.

colored cake

For Cooper's Birthday this year I didn't get too themey and decided to just focus on colors instead. With that, I wanted to make a tie-dyed cake like I'd seen all over the web recently. It started with some white cake mix that I separated into 4 different bowls.and colored.


Then I poured into cake pans glops at a time.


After all the mix was glopped in (left), I shook the pan a little to get it to smooth out (right)


I did the same with cupcakes for a later party as well.


Two of the three layers ready to bake.


Cake baked.


Cupcakes all baked.


Starting the stacking, made my own vanilla frosting.



The finished cake. I used candy melts to make the circles on top. Can't wait to eat this tomorrow, hope the kids like it!