Yesterday we had James' first real birthday party - and of course, it was a pirate birthday party! His party was supposed to be last Saturday, but James ended up getting some awful, gross stomach virus that week and we had to reschedule it. So last week was basically the longest week of James life, the wait for the originally party was hard enough for him - but then to push it another week?? He was about to lose his mind. Thankfully almost everyone was able to still come and with the weather being 100% better than last week, it was worth pushing the party back a week.
We made the party "map" invitations, and James got a big kick our of delivering them to all his friends. I heard from most of the parents that their kids play with theirs, which totally made the extra effort to make the invites instead of buying ones worth it.
We made signs for around the house - because, why not?
And since pirates all have tattoos, we had temporary pirate tattoos for the kids.
When the kids walked in, they got to get all "pirated up" as James called it. They got to grab some gold doubloons, necklaces, an eye patch, sword and pirate hat.
With all the pirate stuff - the kids went crazy for the pirate straws. They were pretty cool.
John got it into his head that he wanted to make a watermelon pirate boat. I thought he was kidding, he wasn't. I was impressed that he even attempted let alone actually succeeded in making one!
Madeleine just loved the easy access to the fruit.
Once the kids started arriving, it was totally awesome chaos. They ran and they arrrgh'ed all over the place. They all had their pirate gear...
They ate (although I don't think any one ate more than Madeline - seriously, I was worried she was going to pop)...
Chased bubbles...
Raced trucks...
And bikes...
And of course they bounced!
And fell :)
I found a Groupon for a bounce house rental where they deliver it, set it up and then come take it down. The rental was for 6 hours, but we only needed it for 2 - so we let the company figure out what worked best for them as long as it covered the 2 hours of the party. Well they came 2 hours early and then about an hour later called and asked if it was ok if they picked it up the following morning because they were so busy. So we got a bounce house for 24 hours... and James is in heaven. He got up this morning and ran outside to get some more bounces in before they came and took it away.
It was a perfect pirate cake. When James was sick over his actual birthday, I made a small cake for just us so we could still have a celebration - he took one look at that and declared that since it wasn't a pirate cake, it couldn't be his birthday cake. We settled on that it's an "I love you" cake which he was happy with. But the pirate cake was his official birthday cake, and he was thrilled with it.
We also had goody bags for the kids filled with bubbles, stickers, temp tattoos, a pirate beach ball and more gold doubloons. Pirates need their treasures!
The party was supposed to go from 3-5, but the first family to leave left at 8... and I went to bed at 12:30 and there were still people here. There were no meltdowns or tantrums, only laughs and cheers. We could not have asked for a better day. I think that makes for a pretty epic 4th birthday party.
Instead of gifts for James, we asked people to bring donations for the Charlotte Humane Society. This morning James and I went to drop them off. I was so proud of him - and I could tell that he was proud of himself too. He knew we did something good today. He just melts my heart. It was definitely a day that I will not forget. I wish I took more pictures, but there was just too much fun to be had - and you can never regret living in the moment :) And this was a very good moment. Arrrgh!
