Friends

Our friends Henry and Caroline drove up from Arkansas for Coop's birthday party.  We were able to visit the KC zoo with them before they headed back home:

In elementary school, kids decorate boxes to hold their valentines.  Coop opted for a box that looked like Captain Rex's helmet (from Star Wars):

Coop's school was closed one Friday, so he came to the office with me.  One of my students had her daughter out of school the same day, so they sat in the front row and kept themselves occupied during class:

Jenny

We have been having tons of fun with Jenny.  We get her out of her cage at least once a day:

Jenny helped me work on my class prep:

And then it was time to feed her.  We had a frozen fuzzy rat thing that we thawed and warmed up.  We put the food in a separate cage and then put Jenny in there.  We used tongs to wiggle the rat thing around a bit.  And pretty soon:

Apparently, it's difficult to shove food into your mouth when you don't have hands.  So for the last several minutes of the process, Jenny was standing straight up like this:

Impressive!

Birthday, part 3 -- some of the loot!

Coop's friends and family know and love him well.  Many, many Star Wars and legos gifts. 

Stuffed Yoda that he slept with:

Some Star Wars lego project:

Some completed Star Wars lego project:

And then Coop's grandparents gave him cash.  Which he combined with all the money in his safe to buy this critter:

It's a female pinstripe ball python.  She'll live 20-30 years and eventually get up to five feet long.  Gulp.

We got her cage all set up in Coop's room:

And Coop named her Jenny, which is short for General Grievous, one of his favorite Star Wars characters.  (And we cleared it with his cousin Jenny, so she'd be ok sharing her name with a snake.)

Birthday, part 2 -- Parties!

Cooper opted to have a birthday party with his friends at the karate studio:

Coop and Mr. Taylor, one of his instructors:

Mr. Howe explaining the rules...

Presents:

Learning basic karate stances:

The end:

(There was also tons and tons of running around and being crazy.  That's difficult to photograph.)

Back at the house, we had a Darth Vader cookie cake to celebrate:

Birthday, part 1

The day started at 7am with presents!

Party at Raintree:

Cookie cake at home:

Some quality time reading Daddy's new book:

And out shooting targets with his new BB gun:

Winter misc

A lego creation:

Snuggling:

At karate, Cooper was recognized for his focus and attention (I know, right?!?) and invited to join the next level of membership: Black Belt Training.  He's thrilled!

Black Belt Training involves 15 extra minutes after class to work on different kinds of skills and weapons.

And a black outfit now (with blue tshirt in this pic):

King Cooper.  Ready to order his servants to clean his room.

Arkansas!

Alan always has an econ conference the first week of January, so Coop and I drove down to Arkansas to visit our friends Henry and Caroline.

Watching Night at the Museum:

Re-enacting Night at the Museum (Henry is the t-rex, Coop is Teddy Roosevelt, and Caroline is the monkey):

Happy New Years!!  (at 9:30pm, don't tell the kiddos):

Watching tv:

The kids and Miss Melissa put on a puppet show (bottom left), Mr. Will ran the lights (just to the right of the pole), and Miss Melissa and Mr. Will's friends (Miss Kerri, Mr. David, and Mr. Jim) were rapt audience members:

Reading Star Wars:

With Henry's lego star destroyer:

The Money Museum

Coop and I met our friend Henry in Kansas City to tour The Money Museum at the Federal Reserve:

The $40 million wall: