My3Peas: A really long-overdue birthday party post

When I haven't been blogging, you know it's because we're busy. But I didn't want to skip over the birthday party pix, so here's a quick party post.

This year's friend party theme was "Pirates and Mermaids." There were 5 girls and 5 boys, mostly friends from school. The weather stayed blessed, so we were able to do the outside stuff on the deck and everyone had a great time. The only thing missing (according to J) was a real pirate. I told him there was no way to sail a pirate ship to Perkasie and he said he understood. Bob made the comment that my parties are kind of birthday/VBS combos and he's right. Lots of crafts and games and then snacks at the end :-)

I'd be totally remiss if I didn't give a big shout-out to my 2 helpers, Grandma and Sharon. There's no way I could pull off the whole shebang without them. And poor Sharon helped the whole day with a terrible headache, to boot. Now that's dedication!

Waiting for the guests to arrive.

(I sewed bandanas for the boys and 'fins' for the girls.

Not sure I'm going to be sewing for next year's party ;-)

Sharon getting the sand castle cake ready. Again....total trooper!

Other fun snacks included clam cookies and pirates teeth apples. I readily admit to taking all the cool ideas from Family Fun magazine and using them all at once.

The first activity at our parties is a mass scrapbook event. Everyone decorates a page that I later use to make a party album with. In reality, it's all about fitting as many stickers as possible on the page!

The girls made mermaid crowns and the boys made an 'ocean in a bottle'. I didn't get any good pix of them, but the boys also made Captain's parrots to wear on their wrist.

Games included a sunken treasure hunt and a round of 'don't get pinched by the crab"

- AKA hot potato.

Last stop was the snack table. One section for the pirates and one for the mermaids.

Chowing down.

The cake turned out AWESOME! I'm so thankful for all of Sharon's hard work (she made practice ones first, including one made of Rice Krispy squares....my fleeting, but ultimately failed idea.)