She is six! My baby is six years old. When I look at her every day, she is my baby. But then I see her next to a two or three year old and I see how tall she has grown and how mature she is beginning to look. Scary realization that I would love to back track and NOT have!
But, the fact is, they do grow up and my children are no exception. Believe me, I have an almost-teenager in the house and I am reminded daily of how fast they grow.
Back to my sassy six year old! Happy Birthday, JJ!
As you can see, she completely surprised me by asking for a Pirate themed birthday party. Now, keep in mind, this girl is my girliest of girls. She is all about pink, lace, ribbons, bling, ruffles, and all things feminine. However, if you have ever listened in on her Barbie play sessions - she is also apparently all about peril. Her dolls are forever in life threatening situations, and maybe pirates play into that somehow. Yeah, we'll go with that. Now, how to throw a pirate party for a girl? Hmmm....
First things first...you have to pull together a pirate-y outfit. She put most of this together herself. She had a vision and I let her roll with it. Convincing, no?
See that T-shirt? The pic is a little glare-y, but we took an old, stained white T-shirt, created a graphic with her name on the computer, flipped the image, printed it out on an iron-on sheet, and voila! A ready made pirate-flag T-shirt with a pink skull and cross bones. Perfect for your princess pirate! Oh, and a fake gold earring always helps.
Her vest was made for a previous school musical by taking an old, second-hand brown T-shirt, cutting off the sleeves, cutting it down the middle of the front, and cutting some fringes into the bottom. Instant raggedy pirate vest. And just wait until you see the back! But first...some pirate mischief!
As you can see, when our kids disagree, we let them loose on each other....with weapons. They usually work things out on their own, eventually...and with minimal casualties.
BB's pants were made from some old thrift store pants that we cut up. It's so fun to go scissor happy on clothes. It makes me feel...naughty :)
Okay, see the back of the vest, now? A cute fuzzy vinyl iron on shape using my Silhouette machine! Love.
You also need some pirate grub. I figured that chocolate cupcakes with red icing would do the trick. Not exactly sure why, but red really works for pirates :) I added some SAWEET cupcake toppers from this awesome website "Tattered And Inked" (hello, free download!)
After saving the free download, I opened the file in Photoshop and personalized them with her name and her age. So fun!
So, the preparations were completed and our scurvy pirate had to wait patiently for her pirate friends to arrive. Um, have I mentioned that "patient" isn't in her vocabulary?
Eventually the cutie patooties arrive and the real partying (or pirate-ing) can begin!
The party started out with a Pirate's favorite thing ever....a treasure hunt! TJ planned the entire thing, starting with the first clue and a back story of the evil queen who has too much gold. We planned to rid her of her excess riches :)
The first clue was found in the kitchen and the hunt was on! Each clue led to a piece of a treasure map. So clever!
After all of the clues were found, they put together the pieces of the treasure map and followed its instructions implicitly!
Time to count paces!
I think they are getting closer! Wait! One of the pirates spotted something behind the bushes....what could it be?
It's a treasure chest. Is it the queen's?
Hooray!! It's gold, gold, gold! Quick, fill up your bags before her soldiers come!
Way too much fun. They went crazy!
Next we had to see what "loot" the pirates brought for their pirate queen! First, she got the much-coveted "Merida" doll from "Brave". She was beyond thrilled!
The gifts kept coming! She really loved this fluffy puppy that you can style her hair. So cute.
It's a tradition to snap a photo with each guest after she opens their gift. The idea is to include the photo in a thank you card (when I remember to get them made) as well as a reminder to our girls as to who came to their party!
She got a wonderful array of gifts - most of which involved making, crafting, or creating! Love that!
Oh, and you can't have a pirate party without a new pirate-y movie!
So, was her 6th birthday a smashing success? Absolutely. She loved it, the kids had fun, and we all felt satisfied afterward. Now, it's time to make a wish, baby girl!
We sure love our six year old and can't wait to be there to enjoy the rest of your birthdays!
No comments:
Post a Comment