Captain Daniel's 6th Birthday

The night before Daniel's actual birthday:

Daniel: Since I made you food in bed for your day (Mother's Day), does that mean you are going to surprise me with train pancakes in my bed for my birthday tomorrow? So Nathan got up early to make train pancakes for Daniel. He is usually the last one awake but when Nathan went in to recruit Liam and Caleb to help, Daniel was already awake. He was so excited, he pulled the covers over his head, pretended to be asleep, while he waited for the "surprise". He loved eating in bed, but Liam was upset that we hadn't done the same on his birthday. I told him we could for his next birthday. I guess he wasn't going to wait that long. He took his plate off the table and went into his bed to eat it. (It was pretty funny because he'd been up playing for at least 45 minutes or so before he climbed back in.)

That day Daniel was thrilled to hand out cupcakes that he'd helped me make to his kindergarten class. That night he chose to have McDonalds for dinner (he got an R2D2 toy-which is the real reason for the choice).

On Saturday we celebrated Daniel's birthday with a pirate party. Each of the kids received a bottle with a message in it as the invitation. As the kids arrived they each got a pirate hat (my sewing machine broke, but even with hot glue, I think they turned out really cute), an eye patch, and an inflatable pirate sword. We made pirate ships from big refridgerator boxes. All of the crew went crazy sailing, battling crocs, and each other. We also had a bubble maker so the pirates could practice their skills and not let anything escape their swords.

Next we handed out prosthetic hooks (candycanes stuck through cups) and let them attempt to hook a few pretzels to munch on (and ultimately munch on the candycanes). Nathan drew a huge ship on the driveway and filled lots of cannon ball water balloons. Then Captain Daniel gave the order and the cannon balls were fired. Before long the enemy ship was obliterated.

It wouldn't be a pirate party without a treasure hunt. (Thanks to my mom for coming up with some fun clues). The last clue brought them to the sandbox. It was funny to see so many kids crowded around the 'x' trying to dig up the treasure box. There were so many kids that they knocked down the sand as fast as they dug it out. (They got absolutely no where for 15 minutes or so!) Then we got a little help from a big shovel (Nathan's). Finally the treasure was out! They definitely earned it.

We took them all back to the ships and had pizza and watermellon. Then it was time for the cake. I found the pirate ship cake idea on line and made it the night before. It looked really cute until Iwoke up the morning of and found it had broken into thirds. Arrrggggg! (That was me--not a pirate!) Nathan helped me skewer the cake sides back up and I had to fill the cracks with frosting. (I think it was a third frosting when I was done--gross.) It still looked reasonably good (thanks to Nathan's ship repairs, and a frosting cover up job.)

Of course Daniel was totally spoiled by his grandparents, and friends. He got so many fun presents. Lots of playdough, some Star Wars legos, pirate books, camping stuff, art supplies....he hasn't even had enough time to remove it all from the packages. Nathan found him a GI Joe jet that shoots missles too. Overall, I went crazy again. But I figure it's so much fun and in a few years he won't want to be all creative--so we will live it up now. I hope his friends have fun at our house too and that they will always like coming to our house.