Cooper's 5...Par"tea" time!

Well, my sweet,innocent, mild-mannered little girl has turned 5! Wait, I think I've confused those adjectives..those belong to Lettie and Coop is independent, strong- willed, opinionated, and most of the time, guilty as charged! But everyone needs a Coop, at least that's what Mark always says, but he's not with her as much as I am. All kidding aside though, my Coop is 5 and loving every minute of being "older". It makes me so sad to know that she will be in kindergarten next year. My babies are growing up so fast and it's tough to take. Coop can't get old soon enough. She told mine and Mark's mom the other day that she wished she was a teenager so she could do anything and go to the mall whenever she wanted! Are you kidding me?! This is out of the mouth of a fresh five year old. Mark and I have talked a lot about how mature Coop has always been and we're trying our best to keep that under wraps as long as we can. I love her so much but it frightens me when I have a 20 minute conversation with her about texting and realize it was a five year old I was just talking to and not a fifteen year old!
My mom decided to give Coop a tea party as her birthday gift from her and it was so precious. She got to invite five friends, the smaller the better and easier. The girls had so much fun! They arrived in their tea party attire and we did their hair and makeup first then they put on pearls, earrings, gloves and hats and par-"tead". Sharon, the party planner, gave them a quick etiquette lesson and the girls snacked on croissants, petit fours, fruit kabobs, cookies, pink lemonade, and tea of course. One of their favorite things was drinking from real tea cups. After tea, the girls put on a fashion show and then had cupcakes and opened gifts. It was such a fun party, especially for me because I didn't have to do anything to prepare, Sharon did it all and did it well. She even made the treat bags the girls took home and they were awesome. She made picture frames for a photo I took of them dressed up and filled the bags with homemade goodies and stickers. Sharon made all the food we had and it was wonderful, down to the crown shaped peanut butter sandwiches.
So the tea party happened on Saturday and Coop's actual birthday was on the following Wednesday. Little did we know she had plans for a celebration on Wed. as well. She told Mark on Tuesday afternoon that she wanted the whole family to go to breakfast before Jack went to school and then wanted us to "surprise" her with dinner at a fancy restaurant she had never been to but didn't serve fish or broccoli, unless it was broccoli and cheese soup. At least she wasn't specific, huh?! She also wanted me to take her to lunch at Apple Cake Tea room, just the two of us. Should we be concerned that all her birthday requests revolve around food? We got up very early and all five of us went to Perkins for breakfast, tea room for lunch and then headed to the mall with Coop's friend Ella, as well for dinner. The fancy restaurant changed to a smorgasbord of food from five different places in the mall...this was actually Mark's idea and Coop loved it! We then spent an hour in Claire's, and I really mean 60 full minutes, looking at "stuff". Needless to say, Coop had a great 5 year old celebration and Mark and I finished the night off very tired with a serious case of heartburn! If this was what turning 5 was like I cannot imagine what she'll think of when she turns 16!
Just to throw it out there, in case anyone is in need of a good party planner I'm going to post Sharon's info on my next post cause I lost the paper with her number on it, as usual!