Cooper's First Birthday Party

This not to little man will be 1 year old tomorrow!  I cannot believe it's already been a year, yet it's hard to remember life before Cooper!  We celebrated a little early over this past weekend.  We wanted all of our "immediate" family there, so we graciously accepted Grandma and Papa Farm's offer to host the party for us.  This meant that Cooper's only great grandparents could attend, and it cut the travel time in half for Aunt Jess & Uncle Nick!  We were so excited that everyone was able to come, and the weather in Nebraska (and Iowa) in December cooperated enough for everyone to come and make it back home safely!  I wanted to make Cooper's big day special but low key, so a family affair worked out perfectly.  The "theme" was a Charlie Brown Christmas.  I figured it's the holiday season, so we might as well embrace it.  Cooper is a bit of a peanut anyway, his first 2 initials are C.B., and he has a beagle for a dog.  I thought it was a perfect theme!  Little did I know that "Peanuts" inspired party supplies don't really exist right now.  We did the best we could, so the theme was a little more subtle than it started in my head!

I decided I needed to make Cooper something for his birthday party, so I make this memory board for him.  I followed a couple Pinterest tutorials, and I'm really proud of how it turned out.  It's the perfect little momento from this time in Cooper's life!  

I hung all of Cooper's monthly pictures up on  Grandma's mantle.  I didn't think he'd really grown all that much until I saw all the photos lined up!  He has grown, and so has his crazy hair!  

Isn't this just adorable!  A super talented baker from our hometown made this perfect little cake!  It was sooo delicious!  The cake was a fudge marble cake with fudge filling!  Cooper's little smash cake was white with buttercream filling.  

As you can see, Cooper got one thing from me...my sweet tooth!  The kid LOVES sweets, and the cake was no exception.  It didn't take him long to dig right in.  He went directly in the bath following the cake eating!

 

Cooper was royally spoiled by all his relatives!  He got some super fun new toys that are much more "boy" friendly!  I did notice; however, that every single one of them makes noise...

 

Cooper had a lot of help from all his cousins and big sister testing out his new boys.  We are all working on sharing!  

He tried each of them out, and so far he really seems to enjoy all of them.  He's a busy little guy, so some new things to play with are perfect for him!  

 

Cooper had a lot of fun playing with all his family.  I didn't snap as many family pictures as I intended, but here's a couple.  I thought this one of him playing with Papa Tekamah and the red balloon was cute!  

Cooper has recently became very attached to Grandma Tekamah. When Grandma was holding cousin Parker, Cooper got very jealous and weaseled his way onto Grandma's lap.  She had her hands full for a little while!   

It was the perfect way to celebrate our little man!  I couldn't have asked for anything more!  We will have just a small little celebration tomorrow night at home just the four of us, and we'll take come treats to share with all of Cooper's friends at Holly's tomorrow. The birthday week continues...