Out of the Blue

Yo ho mateys! Cole turned four and we had a swashbucklin' good time at his party. This post is going to be photo overload because I love all these kiddos.

I'll also share some of the details in case anyone wants to know where things came from. I found these cute bottle invitations at Oriental Trading, and they were cheaper than printed invitations. Score! They came with sand, a cardboard eye patch, skeleton ring, labels for the outside of the bottles, and the invitation.

I wasn't so crazy about the invitation that came with the bottles, so I made my own and printed them. I used some graphics that I got from seller JazzyPatterns at etsy for the invitation (and other party elements.) The blocked off part is our address.

I didn't make much for the party, but I had this corn hole game that I had been wanting to make a design for. I had some pirate fabric, got some corn from my daddy, and whipped up some bags. Well...the game looked cute, but it didn't really work that well. I had the posters printed at Sam's photo lab as large prints, and the bags didn't slide across them well. It didn't really matter because the kids were really too interested in the pirate ship to play corn hole.

We had one heck of a pirate ship. It was a stroke of luck that we got to use this! To make a long story short, some photo clients told me about Bob and Lydia's ship, I chatted with them some, and we were soon making plans for them to bring it to the party.

Bob and Lydia worked HARD to get this all set up for the children. They are two of the smartest, kindest, and most interesting people I have met in a long time. If you would like to get in touch with them, shoot me an email and I will get their contact information to you.

Here is the ship all set up - complete with a fierce skeleton, rats, and a beaver walking the plank!

If you know Cole, you know that he is not speechless often. But let me tell you - when he came around the corner and saw this ship he didn't even have words for a while. It was so funny.

Lucy and Grayson boarded the ship for some fun...

See...I told you there was a beaver walking the plank. And did I mention there was TREASURE on board?

Cole and Kyndle had no trouble steering this mighty pirate ship...

Nor did Mason! What a crew! They enjoyed the ship so much.

One of Cole's sweet babysitter's agreed to be the head pirate for the party and lead the kids on a hunt for pirate treasure.

Pirate Dakota told the kids about the treasure, asked to see their meanest pirate faces, got them to talk like a pirate (Arrrr!), and taught them the secret pirate handshake - high tide, low tide, cannon ball! (High Clap, Low Clap, Fist Bump)

Next, the kids were all given pirate names! If you happen to need some names, here you go:

BOY NAMES

Rowdy Red Beans, Captain Toothache, Two Toes Tommy, One Ear Eddie, Squiffy Stormchaser, Buccaneer Bart, Sam the Swashbuckler, Peg Leg Jack, Spike the Sea Wolf, Robby Redbeard, Hook Hand Harry, Stinky Boot Bob, Big Jamaica John

GIRL NAMES

Gunpowder Gertie, Shipwreck Sally, One Stump Sue, Bonny Barnacle, Blue-Eyed Bess,

Landlubber Lucy, Boisterous Bess, Kelly the Kidd, Cannon Ball Carla, Greedy Grace of the Sea, Calypso Clara

Henry cracked me up with his Stinky Boot Bob name!

The little pirates had to do three things in order to find the treasure.

#1

It’s time to walk the plank if ye dare,

If ye make it across there will be prizes to share.

Creep down the stairs and into the backyard,

Line up at the plank – it won’t be too hard.

Don’t be ‘fraid of the gators – walk on by,

When you get to the end – you’ll get a bandana, an earring, and a patch for ya eye.

Everyone made it across the plank and was rewarded with their pirate accessories!

You can find the bandanas and earrings at Oriental Trading. The eye patches came with the swords, and I'll post a link to those later.

It’s time to move on, we can’t be late,

Our next clue will take us through the secret fence gate.

We must be very quiet, keep a finger on your lip,

Our job is to sneak up on a bad pirate ship.

We’ll blast it with cannonballs, you won’t be bored,

If you can hit the ship, you’ll earn a real pirate sword!

The pirates blasted the ship (which I painted one day on some extra plywood I found under the house). Here's my tip for water balloons...don't buy nice, thick balloons. They don't burst! :) The swords came from Oriental Trading and had eye patches with them.

Go William! (A.K.A. One Ear Eddie)

All pirates got a quick briefing in sword handling:

Now that you’ve earned your swords you have to know the rules of the sea,

You must promise right now to keep your swords low when fighting…down by your knee.

If we see your swords swing up near someone’s face…

We’ll take your sword away and you’ll be a pirate disgrace.

More fierce pirates...

We were soon moving on to:

#3

Before we look for treasure there is one more thing we must do…

Every pirate needs a battle scar and a pirate tattoo!

Are you ready? Are you brave? Do you dare?

There’s treasure to be found, so hurry… line up behind a chair!

The kids all got tattoos. Just in case you don't know...tough pirates use salty sea water to apply their tattoos.

They also got battle scars. All you need to make battle scars is red lip liner, black eyeliner, red lipstick, and a rough sponge. Draw a jagged red line first. Then made black "stitches" through the red line. Last, apply some red lipstick to the sponge and dab it around the scar.

Cole's DeeDee was our professional scar maker.

Love, love, love these sweet and fun kids! ARRRRR!!!

And last, the pirates were ready to go find their treasure:

Alright little pirates, you’re getting hot,

There’s treasure to find and X marks the spot.

If you listen very carefully and do as you’re told,

You’ll find a chest full of jewels and coins of gold.

Line up behind this flag - we’ll sneak down the road

We’ll chant and we’ll sing – it’s the pirate code.

The kids lined up behind Pirate Dakota and they all marched down the road chanting together:

We are pirates! Get out of our way!We want treasure! Give us your silver!Give us your gold! ARRR!!

We ended up in a little, sliver of park where Pirate Dakota told the little ones this story:

A very long time ago, a pirate’s ship landed just out there where you see the water. The pirate was tired after a long journey so he came here to rest. He didn’t leave his treasure on the boat. He brought it with him so no one would steal it.Guess what happened? He fell asleep!He woke up when he heard a canon firing…boom!He saw that someone was trying to sink his ship, so he ran back to his ship as fast as he could and sailed away before his ship was destroyed. And guess what? He was in such a hurry he forgot to take his treasure with him! It’s still here!Do you think you can find it? If you were a pirate, where would you go to rest?

And under the park bench...treasure was found! Whitley's expression is priceless!

I loved that One Ear Eddie was marching around with his name. Braeden shows off his treasure..

By the time we got back to the house the pirates were all hungry. I didn't make any fancy pirate food. It was hotdogs, sandwiches, and chips. They had worked up an appetite and chowed down as pirates do.

Cole has a best buddy at the Publix bakery (He calls her sweet potato, and she gives him TWO cookies when we visit) so it was a must that she make the cake for him.

Cole made out like a pirate for sure when present time rolled around.

I didn't mention earlier that the pirate ship had working water cannons! The photo below shows Cole working the control to shoot the water while Grayson and Zack splashed around and enjoyed a cool down.

It was a great day. I'm so thankful for our sweet family and friends that joined us and made it so special!

If anyone wants to snag any of the party photos of you kids (there are lots more than are shown here) your can find them here:
http://jillhiggins.shootproof.com/event/588024

When we first moved into our house our side yard was a hot mess. Literally. The house had been rented for two years before we bought it, so they renters had just let everything grow and grow and grow some more. If you are a child of the 80s, Guns N' Roses would definitely have come to mind as you walked down the steps to brave the jungle.

Brian worked some serious overtime to get the yard cleared and weeded. Unfortunately he had to take down an oak tree because it was so badly damaged. But now he has a place to plant the gazillions of seeds that he buys/digs up/scavenges from whatever plant he passes by. (Some people bring home cats. Brian brings home seeds.)

This is what it looks like now. Brian has planted quite a few fruit trees which are small and bare right now, so you can't really tell. There is also a tiny garden tucked away in the top, left of the picture that you can't see that is home to carrots, basil, green beans, parsley, and more. So here's to a work in progress.