Party 2 – The “real” one

Simon turned 6, and we went for the kid’s party. My first one. Simon wanted a pirate party – he actually picked up an Oriental Trading catalog about a month beforehand and marked everything he wanted in it. Well OK, he was following me around for about 3 days trying to tell me everything he liked in there and so I finally gave him a marker and told him to check everything that he was trying to tell me about. I was surprised and reminded of my childhood days when he finally handed me the catalog. He didn’t pick that many things, but circled exactly what he wanted and even marked the colors. Laura, Sarah, and I used to do that for hours before our birthdays and Christmas. It was so much fun to circle all the things you liked, so satisfying to draw the big circles and exciting to see at the end what Mom thought was worthwhile too. OK, so on to our party.

Simon, Miles, Eli, Miriam, Aunt Hannah, and myself made up the crew (hey it’s my first kids party I needed to start small). Jack was here too, but wasn’t so much into the pirate thing – he wanted lunch. The kids were so cute, and so well-behaved, even with swords! Miriam was right there along with the boys the whole time. Seth and Laura helped me make the pirate ship the night before (thank you my dears, I owe your future children a cardboard box creation). It was a huge hit with the boys. We walked the plank, followed our treasure maps to the island and then started the Treasure Hunt.

They ran all around the house following the clues and only needed hints a couple times, I was impressed. Then we had lunch and the treasure chest birthday cake (super easy recipe on Kraft.com). Eli saved the day when he asked if there was ice cream (that must be his mom’s genes). I had completely forgotten to serve it with the cake! That would have been a waste. All ended well with presents and another trip in the pirate ship.

All in all the guests were happy, Simon was happy, I was happy, and now I have accomplished another milestone in Motherhood. Add another skill to my resume – Kid’s Birthday Party planning.