Ahoy Matey!

It's leap year which means Ryan actually had a birthday this year, his ninth birthday to be exact.  And since his birthday only comes around once every four years, we wanted to make a big deal out of it.  A friend gave me a great idea to pick a theme that a nine year old would like.  Hmm, what does a little boy like?  Pirates!!!  So the shopping for eye patches, dreadlocks and other swashbuckling paraphernalia began.  But guess who already had Elizabeth Swann's pirate princess dress ... Tessa!  Perfect. 

I wanted to surprise Ryan and managed to keep pretty quiet about the party prep.  But keeping a four year old quiet is a different story.  He probably wondered why Tessa kept talking about pirates.  I tried to explain these comments away by reminding him she loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  While we were at OK's party, Ryan's parents were nice enough to decorate.  Ryan knew we were having cake with family but he was surprised to see the decorations and discover we all had costumes. 

In fact, I love these costumes so much I think they will make an encore appearance for Halloween.   

Tessa racked up on pirate toys, pirate books, pirate music and even a pirate Ken doll.  But one of the gifts was actually for Ryan, a bottle of rum.  I might have gotten a little carried away with mixing drinks.  Rum Runner, Planter's Punch, and Bermuda Triangle were just a few of the recipes I tried that day.  Of course we blamed any balance problems on the eye patches not the liquor, it's amazingly hard to navigate with only one good eye.  To say it was hilarious celebrating like pirates would be an understatement.    

The pirate cake turned out great.  The staff at Bi-Lo seemed amused when I walked in with a picture of what I wanted and the toys to do it with.  Then again they could have just been amused that my little helper was sporting one of her princess dresses, Giselle that day, and adding her two cents about the pirate cake.  Side note, we don't usually venture out in princess dresses but that day she was adamant and was even willing to forgo the free bakery cookie in favor of wearing the dress.      

Ryan managed not to light his long flowing hair on fire when he blew out his candles.  Then he proceeded to cut the cake using his pirate sword.  He really cracked me up making his pirate face. Arrggghhhh!  

Happy 9th Birthday Ryan!