My beautiful mama (who I affectionately call “Moomy”) turned 50 this week and we celebrated big!!!

First of all, mama bought a car on her birthday week, which was huge! It actually had nothing to do with her birthday, as she’s been looking for a new car casually for almost a year, but when the perfect one came along, it was days before her birthday, so it made the monumental 50th birthday feel even bigger!

Here she is below looking cute as ever with her car (how is she 50?) and all I can say is literally no one deserves it more. My mama is the hardest working lady I’ve ever known and NEVER puts herself first. I’m just so proud of her for buying something for herself! Her trusty gold Lexus was 15 years old and had 220,000 miles on it so it was a good time for something fresh 🙂

Also, us Coopers and Hamiltons aren’t ones to buy new(ish) cars and Luke and I both drive wonderful, but really old cars so all of us are in awe of this thing…like cars are now spaceships, ya’ll!

Anyway, back to Mama’s birthday party! On Monday night (before her actual birthday on Tuesday), we had a big party at our house and 50 people attended! 50 PEOPLE, how cool was it that it worked out that way? It was awesome but wow…literally 5 people we invited RSVPd “no” and we were not expecting that many people to be able to come! But, it was so much fun and a testament to how loved my mama is and the impact she’s had on so many people’s lives, including her co-workers, church friends, lifelong friends, and most of all – her family.

My parent’s house was filled to the brim with conversations and laughter and I’m so thankful my mom will always have the memory of this party to look back on.

The party started at 7:00pm and we served appetizer style foods including fruit, veggies, chips + salsa, buffalo chicken dip, cocktail weenies, crab dip, taco dip and more. And of course, birthday cake, made by none other than Sylvia’s Cakes! Sylvia made my wedding cake and her cakes are just the best. I was OBSESSED with the way the cake turned out, it was so beautiful!!!

For decoration, we of course had a balloon garland (mine + Luke’s specialty), number balloons for 5 and 0, a pumpkin & flower centerpiece, several chalkboard displays honoring mama/the year 1967, a picture book I made of pictures from her whole life,  and other autumn decor that was already out in their house. Outside we had a fire going, twinkly lights and some more food!

We had a playlist of all my mama’s favorite songs going, took tons of pictures, and just enjoyed celebrating the woman Andrea Cooper is. It was such a joy for me to see all the people who love my mama because she really is the most classy and strong lady and my very best friend.

The best end to the night was when my dad, brother, Luke and I surprised her with our gift – a tandem skydiving experience! She has always wanted to do this and we knew she needed a push to schedule it! She has to use it within the year, so her 50th year will be the one! She was SO surprised and it was precious! I think she’s really excited 🙂