Happy Birthday, Cooper!

On Monday we celebrated Cooper's 5th birthday.  Can you believe it's been five years?! If he were still here, he would be starting Kindergarten next year.

We took cupcakes and balloons to the cemetery, like always. Syd and I dressed up as twinners.

Mom got Cooper a Super Hero Squad balloon because we figured he would like the Avengers just like Syd and I do. 

Mom made Cookies 'n Cream cupcakes and they were not very good.  There was an Oreo at the bottom that ended up getting burned.  But as long as you took off the Oreo, the rest of the cupcake was yummy.

It was raining on our way to the cemetery so Mom was worried we would only be able to have a quick visit. It's never rained on Cooper's birthday before. But I prayed for it to be sunny, so I knew the rain would stop. About five minutes after we got there, the sun came out and we got do all the things we normally do when we visit Cooper. Then it started raining again as we got in the car to leave. Thank goodness Heavenly Father answers prayers!

Dad even found a baby frog! It was so cute!

Syd tried to hold it, but it wouldn't stay in her hands long enough for a picture.

I tried to get a picture of Mom and Dad next to Cooper's grave, and this is the best I could do. The grass was wet, so they didn't want to sit on it and Sydney kept trying to get in the picture.

But Dad managed to get a shot of Mom with us kids.

We all love Cooper and wish he was here with us right now. He would be so much fun to play with and we could ride the bus to school together! I hope he has a friend in heaven that he gets to play with.

***Note from Kristen: This morning Ty asked, "When Cooper died and went to heaven, do you think Heavenly Father and Jesus held him?" I told him they probably did to make him feel better since he was probably sad that he couldn't stay with his family right now. It's so touching to hear the thoughts that young hearts and minds come up with.

Last Day of Kindergarten!!!!

I have been ready to finish Kindergarten and start first grade for the last month! I loved Kindergarten, but I can't wait to be in school all day and take the bus to school every day and eat lunch at school every day.  I asked Mom if we could have a celebration for the last day of school like we do for the first and she made it the best last day of school ever!

Mom and I made this cool bag to put my teacher's present in. I cut out and glued all the pieces myself.

Then Mom made these awesome brownie graduation caps and brought them to my class for a special treat at the end of the day.

My Mom is very thankful for Pinterest.

This is me with my teacher Ms. Hennessy.

Before we left, all of the kids gave her a huge hug--at the same time!

That's Sydney sitting on the green carpet square. Sometimes she thinks she's part of the class.

My backpack barely made it to the last day of school. It started ripping a few days before school got out, and this is what it looked like on the last day.

When I got home, there were signs all over the garage doors about things I had done during my year in Kindergarten:

Lost first tooth

Rode a 2-wheeler with pedals
Learned to read
Ran the most Fun Run laps in class

Learned all Kindergarten sight words

Finished four levels of Rocket Math

Earned tons of tiger tails

Made new friends

Started track
Rode the school bus
Made loads of artwork
Received Tremendous Tiger award for Empathy

After I read all of those I headed to the front door and found a giant sign and a bucket of summer fun.

I loved running through the sign.

Inside I got to go through my bucket that had so many fun things in it: sidewalk chalk, a new kite, squirt guns for me and Syd, a sponge bomb, Coke and Mentos for some science experiment we're doing this summer that Mom won't tell me about until we actually do it, a Summer Fun Passport, a summer reading bucket list, crazy straws, silly string, bubbles, Pop Rocks, Justice League rubber stamps, and Otter Pops.

Syd and I wanted to use the squirt guns right away, but since we live in Seattle, the last day of school was cloudy and kind of cold. So instead of squirting each other, we watered the plants with them.

I love school, but I'm also excited to do all of the things we planned on our Summer Fun List.  I just hope the sun decides to show up and hang around for a while!

Track

A few weeks ago Mom signed me up for my new favorite sport--track! Aunt Kari got me hooked on running when she was here for a visit and now I want to run all the time.

We had a Fun Run at my school a couple of weeks ago and I ran the most laps in my class--25! I just kept going and going. It was awesome.  Mom says I'm going to be a distance runner like her.

I had my first practice track meet last week to get us all ready for our real track meet this week and I loved it! We even get cool track shirts to wear.

Poor Sydney has to come to all my practices and meets which are twice a week and she doesn't even get to run in any races.  Luckily, she's able to keep herself busy while I'm training.

My first race was the 25 yard dash and they lined us all up by age group so I was running with 5 and 6 year olds.

Oh wait, Sydney did get to run one race.  Right before the real races began, they let all the kids who are younger than 5 run the 25 yard dash. Syd was excited to run....

....but then chickened out once the race began and just started crying. Mom had to carry her across the finish line.

Anyway, back to me in the 25 yard dash.

I took 5th place.


Then I did the running long jump.  It sure is hard to land on two feet in the sand pit.

And while I was jumping, Sydney kept busy.

Next was the 100 yard dash.

I took 8th place in that.

And my final race was almost at the end--the 200. I took 8th in that too. I wanted to run the 800--two whole laps around the field--but that's only for older kids. Next meet I think I'll just stick to running and skip the long jump. But I can't wait to get more ribbons!

A typical day at the beach....in Seattle

Last Monday was one of the lowest tides of the year, so of course we headed to the beach to check it out.  Don't we look ready to play at the beach?

It was Memorial Day, so of course it was raining.  But that didn't stop us from having tons of fun. We met some friends there and I spent most of the time running around with them while Mom hung back with Sydney. So most of these pictures are of Sydney. Mom didn't get to see most of the cool stuff I found.

Dad trying to get a crab to grab his keys:

Isn't it a beautiful day at the beach?

 

Sydney loved the shells and seaweed she found.

And when Dad showed her a little hermit crab,

she actually let him put it in her hand.

When Dad started turning over rocks, we found some cool snails.

Although my favorite find of the day was this black rock.

Syd looked for Ninja Turtles in the sewer drain, but we couldn't see any.

 

Doesn't everyone stomp in puddles in their rain boots at the beach?

And here's a quick video of silly Syd splashing in the puddles and doing a weird walk afterward.

And after spending almost two hours in the rain at the beach, we did what every other family does after a beach trip--got ice cream cones at DQ! What a great day!