Pirate Party 2012...

Last year we started one of my favorite traditions ever...PIRATE PARTY!  It's our little way to kick off summer and the arrival of Uncle Mike.  He flew home on Monday night and the kids went with me to the airport to pick him up.  The whole way there they were they talking about Pirate Uncle Mike and all the fun things they were going to do for their annual pirate party.  When Wednesday finally arrived I dug out our costumes from last year, made a quick (and cheap) trip to the party store and we were back in service...

This year I added a "pirate ship" for the kids to play in...

 Not as crafty as last year but good enough for putting it together the morning of...

 While we waited for our guests to arrive the kids practiced walking the plank...

 And searched for gold doubloons...

 We drew pictures of pirates and decorated them with pirate stickers...

 When Uncle Mike arrived the kids got out their treasure map and began searching for more gold...

Around 12:30 we had some very special guests arrive...THE PEARSON KIDS!  Since it was the last day of school and their mommy and daddy had to work all day just like our daddy, they decided to hang out with us for the afternoon...

 After our very piraty lunch Emily, Annie and Big Charlie got tatted up with pirate tattoos...

Then we played the ever so anticipated balloon popping game.  The kids sat on the balloons and popped them in order to collect the gold doubloons that were concealed inside...

 Uncle Mike had them "walk the plank"...

 I LOVE that Emily held her breath before she jumped into the water...

We searched for more gold with ALL of the kids...

Grandpa Jim (A.K.A Long John Silver) was eagerly greeted by all of the kids. The Pearson kids warmed up to him quickly and showed it by whacking away at him with their swords...

 After all the sword fighting we decided to do a quieter activity and colored some more pirate pictures and ate cupcakes...

We played and played and played some more.  Then around 4:00 Charlie woke up and we had a water balloon fight.  I literally filled water balloons until my finger tips went numb...

 By 6:00 this momma was TIRED but with that said I have to say that for FIVE hours straight all SIX of these kiddoes played perfectly.  There was not one melt down, not one argument, nothing of the sort. Love that we have friends and family that made this very special day for us even more special!

Friends, Family and Fathers...

Last Thursday we had a day FULL of play dates.  We headed early in the morning to Hillcrest Park and met up with the Sneva's to do some super fun Father's Day crafts...

Emery and Charlie were fascinated with the riding lawnmower and spent their time waving to the driver rather than crafting...

After crafting we headed to another park and met up with the Pickering girls for the rest of the afternoon.  To our surprise Daddy's entire kindergarten class was there on a field trip. With over 30 kiddoes at one little park I was feeling overwhelmed and left our camera in the car.

On Friday the Snevas came over to our house and we took the kids on a walk to one of our favorite neighborhood parks...

Asher LOVES fire poles just as much as Emily does...

Charlie and Jack "helped" each other down the slide a lot...

On Sunday we headed up to Nooksack to celebrate Father's Day with the Joneses.  This is the best picture I got...not one kids looking at the camera!  Oh well, this is about as real as it gets...

It was a little wet outside but the kids didn't seem to mind...

Emily played some serious football with the Lautenbach boys.  Those boys really know how to block their opponent!

Jack found a more fitting activity for himself...

Back inside the littles tested out Grandma's strawberries...

Then we all danced to Captain Zoom to celebrate Cousin Grace and Cousin Vinnie's birthdays...

Then they opened all of their gifts...

To top it all off Grandma Jones announced that Auntie Tammy had dropped off some toys for ALL of the kids as well.  Grandma had them play a little game and when the answered the question correctly they got to choose one gift each.  The rest they decided would go to kiddoes who didn't have any toys...

Then it was off to the kitchen to help Grandma make the whipped cream for the strawberry shortcake...

After a fun time with family we headed on back home, stopped by Cousin Anna's graduation party.  We got their a little too late and the party was already over with so we headed on over to see Grandpa Jim and wished him a Happy Father's Day as well. 

I have to say that I felt a little guilty not putting something on the blog for Bryan on Father's Day but instead I decided to spend the morning doting on him, bringing him early morning newspapers from the store, fresh donuts and his favorite coffee.  Then I left him in silence, hand literally cupped to my mouth and let him enjoy some silent reading without me talking his ear off!  It's funny the things that make a person happy.  I for one would want the complete opposite but I guess it is these little differences that make us who we are and we LOVE him, funny requests and all!