And we skip from Christmas to Tate's 4th Birthday. The only things that happened in the month between was a visit from Christine, Sam and the kids (which was a fun time), and another one of my birthdays, which seem to be getting less exciting the older I become. The family puts effort into celebrating my birthday, but maybe I'm just getting less excited for them and the increasing signs of aging each year brings.
Enough about me, onto Tate and his amazing Pirate Birthday!
Tate had his first birthday party with friends this year and it was quite a party. He chose a pirate theme (with a little prompting from me--there are pirate party supplies everywhere!). He invited over his friends from preschool and a couple others from the neighborhood.
When the crew arrived, they had different tasks to complete to earn their pirate gear and become real pirates.
The first task was walking the plank. This earned the kids their pirate bandanas.
Ryan caught footage of the 2 seconds Luke kept his bandana on.
Several times throughout the party, the young pirates would burn off some energy taking laps around the couch. Of course this was accompanied by throaty yells and swipes of pretend cutlasses.
I believe Luke had just bumped heads with another young mate, but like a true pirate trainee, he just kept running.
The next task was a quick game of stick the treasure to the treasure map. When completed the kids earned their eyepatch.
The last task was finding the ticking bomb (a kitchen timer). Each of the kids would take turns hiding the timer, then the other kids had to find it by listening for the "tick-tock". This earned them an awesome pirate tattoo.
The young pirates wearing their gear (this was taken before the tattoos).
After playing hard, it was time for a little treasure chest cake. Tate made his wish and took a few attempts to get all the candles out. They were a little spaced out :)
The quietest 3 minutes of the party were right after the cake was served.
A tradition started while my dad was growing up (or maybe even before) is a treasure hunt for your birthday presents. This went especially well with a pirate birthday party. Tate and all his friends were really excited to open the clue at each location and find where the next clue would be.
I added this picture to my facebook page as well because it was my best drawn clue. I think Baloo turned out pretty well, especially since I'm not an artist :) This clue, of course, led them to the Jungle Book movie case where the next clue was hidden.
The excitement level rose as the clues went on. We had to stop Tate a few times from wrestling a friend to the ground for opening "his" clue, but in the end everyone was safe and had fun.
Tate found his presents and received many nice things from his friends and family. Here Tate is opening his Hulk Smash fists. We knew he would love these because his favorite thing to do these days is to be "stoowong wike Hulk" and punch stuff.
Ryan "helped put together" the castle which has been a hit among the entire family.
Happy Birthday Tate, we love you!!
