How to Party like a Pirate...

Tucker's birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year. Because of that I wanted to do something a little bit extra special for him to celebrate his day. After all of his talk for Halloween and wanting to be a pirate (which he didn't even end up being!) It got me thinking about a pirate party for him. I didn't even realize that pirate parties were so popular, but I found a TON of ideas on line to throw the best pirate party ever! :) (That and the dollar store had a TON of pirate stuff as well, which was a bonus!) Kathryn offered her house for the venue and we got to work planning.

First, you need the perfect invite. I found these at target, and fell in love! I told him he could invite 5 friends, no more! He chose his friends and they each got one of these babies... :)

Kathryn decorated her house so cute! I know Tucker felt special. Here was her front door as you walked up to it...

Up close, good use of an extra invitation...

The table was set to have some good pirate's grub. Pizza and veggies and apples and dip. All thanks to Kathryn and my dad who provided the food! It helped out a TON, so THANK YOU!

When you first walked into her house, this is what you saw. The boys were a little weary at first. Ben told them that it was his brother, Deadhead Larry skin and bones. My friend Danna pointed out that SKIN and bones doesn't really fit the skeleton. So we changed his name to Deadhead Larry had skin and bones. :) By the end of the night the boys had warmed up to him and he was a hit! :)

Cupcakes I made with pirate flags (homemade-toothpicks, stickers and black construction paper)

Oh, and you also need a great host. Kathryn and I wore our pirate best for the occasion! Thank you again Kathryn for letting us destroy your house!

I also made this treasure map for the treasure hunt that I put together for the boys. I had three games set up that they had to do and after they did each activity they got a clue to where the next activity was. The first one was a game I found that is pin the treasure chest on the treasure map. Whoever got closest to the X won. Then they went and put together a pirate puzzle-one that I already had at our house. For their third activity, they had to walk the plank. I borrowed a kiddie pool from a friend, and put this together. I was going to fill it up with water and put toy alligators in it, but we had to move it out of the way a few times, so it was empty. Not the same effect, but the boys still had fun! :)

Here they are walking the plank:

After walking the plank they got the final clue to find the treasure. The treasure was in the ship in the basement. Yes, I made this out of a refrigerator box! :) I searched everywhere for one and finally found one at Home Depot. I've heard they are hard to come by, so always check Home Depot! :) I also found a Youtube video on how to turn a refrigerator box into a pirate ship. That came in handy! A little Duct tape, some scissors and a Sharpie, and viola! :) I was pretty proud of myself! :)

In the treasure chest in the ship each boy got a goodie bag with (chocolate) gold tab-loons, an eye patch, a pirate hat, and some treasure! They loved it! And they almost destroyed that ship by the end of the night! It got lots of wear and tear! :)

Kathryn had a huge wrestling mat in her basement, which is what the ship was on, so of course, the funnest thing to do on it was this:

And here are all the boys with deadhead Larry...

After lots of running around and playing and being crazy pirates, we finally got to enjoy the cupcakes. (notice my sweet frosting job, I'm a pro!) :)

Cute birthday boy...

And that is how you party like a pirate, my friends. The End.

these two...

I love my babies! A lot of the time they play so well together.

A lot like this-watching a movie in Tuckers bed one morning...

But then of course, it gets to be like this a lot, too...

This thing is little miss independent...

I was so proud of myself this year for conference. I had snacks and treats and crafts and games all ready for the kids. I was going to do a post just all about conference. But these are the only pictures I took of the weekend. But I think they sum up our favorite things about conference: yummy food and pj's. OK, our second and third favorite things about conference. The first being, of course, listening to the prophets! :)

Refusing to eat at the table, insisting on eating on the floor...I don't know what I'm going to do with her some days!

I heard Tucker laughing and laughing one day and went in to find Taylor tackling him and tickling him. It makes my heart so happy to see this.

This little thing loves to draw. All day she is asking me for a pen or crayons. I can always tell where she has been drawing, because she just draws all of these little circles over the whole page. She is so funny, she will just spread out anywhere to color.

We have dance parties EVERY day. No joke, Every day! Right around that time of day that I have to banish them to their rooms for my own sanity, and so I can get dinner done. I can almost always guarantee that I will hear phineas & ferb, spongebob square pants, imaginations movers or the cars soundtrack music coming from Tuckers room. Those are his favorite CD's. They jump on the bed and dance all around and love it. Most of the time I get dragged in somehow, but sometimes I actually get to get something done while they dance! :) I love this dance time in our family. Usually they (or we) are in there dancing when Ben gets home from work. Oh, and the lights have to be off, and only the lamp light on! Tucker insists.

I took these pictures before church the other day. They just looked too cute to pass up! :)

Since I've been trying to focus on being thankful lately, these two are definitely at the top of my list! :) I am so lucky!

The story of my life...

I swear all I do all day is follow these two around cleaning up after them! It is the story of my life.

And I wouldn't have it any other way! I am so lucky! :)

KJ comes home...

My cute little cousin, Kjersti got home from her mission to Brazil. She got home the Friday before Halloween, so we were able to have a fun filled family weekend with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma.

We all went to the airport on Friday to welcome her home! It was quite the spectacle, and so much fun to be there with family whom I love!

My cute cousins with their missionary sister...

Tucker snapped this picture of Taylor and I at the airport...

Me & KJ...

The next day we had a family get together to celebrate her homecoming and also the birthday of my other cousin, Alena and Alena's daughter Adalynn's 1st birthday. My grandma came up for the day/night as did my mom, my aunt and uncle and another cousin from Portland, and 4 of Kjersti's siblings. It was so much fun to be together as a family. We are kind of overloaded with girls on my moms side of the family. Like my uncle said, ' There are only 6 testicles here and a whole lot of ovaries!' :)

My cute cousins, and cute little Adalynn enjoying her first cake...

Taylor playing with Auntie Darryn...

My Wori & grandma...

Taylor being her crazy Taylor self...

Tucker had been eyeing the cake the whole night, until finally it was time to eat it! :)

I am so proud of Kjersti and her missionary service. It was so much fun watching a slideshow of her mission and hearing her stories, it made me think of Chicago! She is so cute, I love how she would unknowingly add Portuguese words in the middle of all her sentences. Her homecoming on Sunday was so great, she really has grown a lot as a person! We love you Kjersti and are happy to have you home!

Day after Halloween...

And in true post-Halloween fashion, Taylor is eating purple nerds out of a bowl with a kit-kat stick as her spoon. :) Life doesn't get much better than this!

We've been eating WAY too much candy around here these past few days.

Halloween...

Somehow Halloween lasted all weekend for us, as I'm sure it did for many! :) I do love Halloween, but by the time Monday rolled around I was kind of ready to be done. :) But we did have a fun time. :)

So, for the past two months all Tucker has talked about is how he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. So, I have been picking up pieces here and there over the past few weeks. I thought he was so cute for his little Pre-school party last Thursday. I don't think that he liked having so many things on his head and just on him in general! :)

Here he is before school on Thursday:

Friday night we had our ward Trunk or Treat/Chili cook-off. We couldn't get enough of this guy:

Here he is with his rocker mom, Gem...

SO...after months of prepping for a pirate on Halloween day, Tucker refused to wear his pirate costume and decided he wanted to be a ninja. A costume we have had for the past year in our basement. Which would have required NO prep! :) (and didn't)

Some of my friends even showed up and did a zombie flashmob to Thriller after the cook-off. :)

Monday morning we headed to the high school to get some more candy. Once again Tucker had to be the ninja. It was fun seeing all the high-school kids we know and in like a half hour the kids got more candy than they needed for their whole lifetime.

Of course, we spent most of the day on Monday digging through their stashes!

Monday evening we took the kids up to Kathryn's house. After, of course, the pictures by the pumpkins.

The only door Taylor knocked on...

After getting our treats from Kathryn, Tucker and Ben headed out to trick or treat around this great neighborhood that throws a party every year. While Taylor and I went home and made our annual dinner, taco soup. The boys came home, we ate dinner, ate more candy and all tried to go to bed with sugar pumping through our veins. It was a great Halloween day but I took the decorations down as soon as I could the very next day. :)