As Ella came into our room to say goodnight to us the night before her birthday, I soaked her all in realizing it was the final night I was going to be the mother to a single-digit kid. Man, that went by fast!
The next morning, as per tradition, she was served breakfast in bed with her requests: a strawberry frosted donut and homemade pancakes.
And then I spent the rest of the morning getting ready for her birthday party.
She lucked out this year that, despite her birthday being on a Wednesday, they didn't have school that day! The kids get one day off between the end of 1st Semester and the start of 2nd Semester so that the teachers have a day to finish putting all the grades in. And her birthday happened to fall on that day.
Ready to greet all the pirates!
As each pirate arrived, they figured out their Pirate name and wore a badge with that name for the rest of the party, then they put on their pirate hat and their eye patch and grabbed a sword.
What's Your Pirate Name?
Smelly Fish Smuggler here! ☠
Ella is about 25% girly girl and about 75% tomboy. She made her invite list and it was 20 people long 😳 I tried to convince her to pare it down to no avail. And it was half boy, half girl. Ella is my only kid who has at least half (if not more) of her closest friends to be the opposite gender. Lacey has never wanted to invite boys to her birthday parties and Tanner has never wanted to invite girls. Riley had a few boys here and there that she wanted to invite, but it was always like 90% girl with a couple boys. Not Ella. She has TONS of friends that are boys. So, we had to come up with a theme that would appeal to both genders.
We sent out Pirate-themed invitations that said the following:
"Ella would love it if your child could join her on a Pirate-themed adventure to celebrate her 10th birthday! We will be doing a treasure hunt, eating Pirate Booty and playing some games over the high seas. This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Ella Sparrow! Arrggh!"
The guests arrived and got busy dressing up as pirates and figuring out their Pirate names.
And then we played "Left, Right, Center" using chocolate gold coins instead of money. It was a big hit!
And then we had Pirate Pizza and Pirate Punch for lunch!
I set up two tables to accommodate everyone and of course, all the girls sat at one table....
And all the boys at the other!
Then we played Pirate Bingo.
Thank you, Etsy!
And then we finished up with a Treasure Hunt! Here is Ella ready to read the first clue.
They found the treasure! A pinata filled with treats and toys.
Going after the spoils.
And then finally, we had some cake.
They're a cute swashbuckling crew. But Captain Kerry sure was exhausted by the time they left to go home! Dave lucked out big time that he was at work and missed the whole thing. Thank heavens I had my party helpers Lacey and Riley!
And then we finished the day by going roller skating.
And I guess it's appropriate that we ended this week of celebrating our bookend babies by going out the dinner, just the two of us. We got engaged January 29, 2005. So our engagement anniversary falls just 7 days after Lacey's birthday and 4 days after Ella's. So, last night, we went to Chart House in Annapolis, the same place we went to dinner the night we got engaged 18 years ago. We thought back to that couple, in their 20's, young and in love with their whole lives in front of them. And there we were in the same restaurant 18 years later. We never would have guessed that we would still be in the exact same place. Some parts of our lives haven't changed since that day. But many parts have. Here we are 18 years later with four kids, now ages 10-16. Doing the best we can to raise those four little people to be the best people they can be.
Happy Birthday to our sweet Lacey and our spirited Ella. And Happy Engagement Anniversary to us! 🥂
