March 26, 2012

• Caleb’s Fifth Birthday

  Caleb turned 5 this past Thursday!  We had a fun and wild Pirate Party. (He picked the theme)  He has decided he wants to be a pirate when he grows up.  Caleb always says “pray that I will grow up to be a pirate Mommy!”  Somehow I always seem to ‘forget’ to pray for that   But we had a fabulous pirate party anyway!

  

  “Cannonballs” (watermelon and grapes, in what was meant to be a ‘pirate ship’, but ended up more like a canoe…they didn’t have any large watermelons at the store!)

   

   The birthday cake, deliciously homemade.

   

  

  A birthday banner I sewed for the occasion…I thought it looked like ships’ flags

  

  The table, with burlap cloth, fish net, treasure chest, starfish and a ships’ wheel

  

  You can see the treasure map rolled up, ready for the treasure hunt

  

  We had a very special guest drop by!  This peacock watched the party from the roof of the garage. 

  

  I made a sailboat for Caleb, a playhouse type thing with a real sail and ropes.  It is made out of wood and painted with a good quality outdoor paint.  The floor of the ship is a sandbox.  I even put a bench in it.

  

  The pirates!  Our first matter of business was to make them look like real pirates!  I gave them each eye patches and swords and bandanas to wrap around their head. Then we went inside and painted on mustaches and got tattoos. It was hilarious and so much fun! Lots of giggles

   

  We had a tug of war…at least we tried! Evidently the concept was a little beyond this age group of 2-5 year olds!  Maybe next year…  We also tried to bob for apples.  Having never done it myself, I didn’t realize that you were supposed to choose apples with stems!  Needless to say none of them were able to get an apple I also had them ‘walk the plank’.  It turned out being a large wooden plank between two barrels.  The goal was to walk blindfolded across the plank and splash into the ‘water’.  Then we tied ‘cannonballs’ (gray balloons) to everyones ankles and they went around trying to stomp eachothers balloons.  The winner was the last one who still had their balloon unpopped.  Unfortunately, the 97cent Wal-Mart balloons were very sturdy, and not one of them popped!  Eveyone’s a winner in this game

  

  I made little bags for them to collect their treasure in.  The treasure was mardi gras beads, plastic ’gold’ coins and chocolate coins and nestle ’treasure’ chocolates.  It was a huge hit!

   

  

  Following the map to hidden treasure   We hid it over the bridge and behind the two hills…it was great fun!

  

   Filling their bags with Pirate booty

  We also had bottles of ‘Rum’ (cream soda in glass bottles) and ‘Seawater’ (limeades with ginger ale).  On his actual birthday, we let Caleb pick all of his meals for the day.  Breakfast was cereal (a treat we NEVER have!!) We had Captain Crunch Cereal, of course!  Lunch was chicken nuggets from Chik-Fil-A.  Supper was chicken nuggets…the grocery store heat n serve type.  He ate on the ‘Happy Birthday’ Plate that I made last year for the birthday kids to eat on for their special day.  This party was Sooooo much fun!!  I had as much (or more) fun planning it than he did!  He is already making plans for another pirate party next year

  • 8:53 pm
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