Pirate Parrrrty

ARRRRGHHHH!

Brace yourself for a million pictures because Finley turned four this past weekend and we threw him a Pirate birthday party! I can't believe how quickly four years has gone by. I just want to slow down time and bottle this kid up so he can stay young forever. He is so loving and affectionate right now. I am trying to soak it all in the best I can because I know it won't last forever as he grows older! 

All the ideas you will see here that we implemented for his party were taken from other folk's blogs, websites, etc. I am not that creative, so thank goodness for pinterest! 

The Invitations:

I had a lot of fun making invitations that looked like a treasure map.

And then we stuffed them into plastic bottles to deliver to all of our friends. 

I found these awesome bottles on Oriental Trading Company. They have a screw on/off bottom so they are easy to stuff and then open! Of course you have to notice that the bottom screws off first :). 

The Decorations: 

Our colors were red, black, and light blue. We used a lot of streamers, some pirate flags, and balloons.

I used a lot of the things Finley already owned to decorate a little 'loot' table. And I found these adorable pirates at Target back in February . 

They are little treat bags to pass out for Valentine's Day, but they worked perfectly to help us decorate our mantle. And they were fun to put together too. 

Of course a pirate party wouldn't be complete without a boat! We made this at Mimi's house one weekend out of a huge box. We also bought black water balloons and blew them up to look like cannon balls. 

Outside we kept it simple. 

We made a few pirate signs. 

And set up a plank for the kids to cross on the way to the house. 

And a red  X marked the spot! 

We encouraged our friends to dress up as a pirate or mermaid. Our family was all about pirates! 

Pirate Training: 

Our first step in becoming a pirate was to make a pirate hat. These cute hat kits also came from Oriental Trading. 

And no pirate would be complete without a sword. We thought it would probably be safest to blow up balloon swords than buy a bunch of plastic ones. 

It was a good thing we did! The kids went a little nuts at times beating each other up with with swords. David got really into making the swords and other balloon creations. He is pretty good at it, so if the whole lawyer thing doesn't work out, he can be a clown instead :).  

Next up everyone had to balance on one leg as we played peg leg Pete! You know, in case you lost a leg and need to know how to balance on one leg. 

Then we put our little buccaneers to work swabbing the deck. 

After the basic training it was time to step it up and work on our cannon ball shooting. I bought some colorful bowls and turned them into pirate ships. 

The pirates took turns bombing the boats with cannon balls, trying to 'sink' the ship by landing a ball into the boat. 

And the last task of our pirate training was practicing walking the plank!

Thankfully every buccaneer made it across without falling in! 

Treasure Hunt: 

Our next activity was filling our treasure boxes with all kinds of loot. 

We read clues that lead us all over the house on a treasure hunt to find hidden prizes to take home. 

Here is all the loot we found: a telescope, pirate tattoos, pirate stickers, some necklaces, an eye patch, a ruby ring (ring pop), and of course pirate gold! 

The hunt ended at a large treasure chest pinata. After all the little pirates had a swing at it we had to bring in the big guns to take it out. Eventually we just ripped into it and collected all the candy. 

Grub and Grog: 

After all that hard pirate training and treasure hunting it was time to have some snacks and cake. For food I tried to keep it pirate themed. We had pirate booty, catch of the day (Swedish Fish), Fruit boats, veggie planks with dip, Polly's crackers, pirate gold (cheese cubes), cannon balls (malted milk balls), gold nuggets (Rollo's), and root beer and shark's blood to drink. 

I made our cupcakes look like a treasure map. I was very pleased with how it turned out! 

And with the extra cup cakes I put some Xs and skull and crossbones on them. 

It was finally quiet when all the pirates started chowing down. 

Our baby boy is getting so big! Oh I can't stand it! 

We were also so glad that David's parents were back from India to celebrate with us! 

Mimi and Donovan also spent the day with us as well. This boy definitely felt the love on his birthday! 

ARRRRRGHHHHHH ME MATEYS! 

And Happy Happy Birthday to our Pirate boy! 

Spring Break

SPRING BREAK! WOOT WOOT!

Well, when David doesn't get spring break, or even Good Friday off, it isn't really as exciting as it could be. 

But Fin and I decide to make the most of finally having some spring weather with some day trips!

On Good Friday we headed over to the Zoo with some friends. 

We had a great time visiting with the Robisons and spent the whole day with the Daughertys. 

We saw a really cute baby chimp. I just wish I was able to get a better picture of it. I kept getting some glare action going on because of that stupid glass they put up. 

A highlight for all the kids was riding the zoo train. They kept begging for it the whole time we were there. Apparently seeing the animals is not nearly as fun as riding the tram.  

My favorite part is always seeing the elephants. 

After visiting all of Africa we headed out of the zoo to have a picnic lunch with the hippos. 

I can't believe this guy is almost 4. 

The Daughertys. 

Me and my little man. 

Saturday brought even nicer weather so we headed over to HP City Lake Park for their annual Easter Egg Hunt and festival. I won't talk about how much we missed a certain Easter Egg hunt hosted by a certain family who moved away :(. We didn't participate in the egg hunt (it was way too crowded) but we did take advantage of riding the free rides! 

We got there right when it started, and I am so glad we did. Lines for the rides got long fast! But luckily we made it on each ride once before bouncing. 

Towards the end of spring break Auntie Michelle came down for a visit! This was the first time in a long time that she came down and didn't have a million things going on. We were able to relax and hang out together. 

Fin and Mash made some fun Lego castles. 

We also celebrated my dad's birthday a little bit early. I am still sad David had to work and miss it. 

We went to my Uncle's new restaurant in Durham Page Road Grill. It is awesome! I highly recommend getting the shrimp and grits or the sweet potato gnocchi. Delicious! Can't wait to go back again soon. 

Finley was a big fan of the citrus aide. And what is this face he makes? He does this in almost every picture now! 

David was finally able to join us on Saturday and enjoy the rest of conference weekend with us. 

We had so much fun visiting with auntie Michelle, Mimi, Pop Pop, and Uncle Donovan. Our visits always seem so short! Luckily she will be back at the end of the month to perform in Durham. 

We hope you had a great spring break too! 

Easter

Happy Belated Easter Everyone! 

I hope you enjoyed celebrating Easter as much as we did. 

I know this is after the fact, but if you haven't seen the bible video on Christ's resurrection called "He is Risen" go and watch it here. It is so great and very moving.  

In order to teach Finley more about the true meaning of Easter we did this cool activity where you open an Easter egg every night. Inside each egg is a scripture to read and an object that represents what the scripture is about. It goes through the last week of our Savior's life, his death, and resurrection. It was a big hit with Finley. He was so anxious to open one every night. And he learned a lot too. He recounted Jesus' resurrection perfectly to Grammie and Abuelo on Skype one day. What a good little missionary! 

Of course no Easter weekend would be complete without dying some hard boiled eggs. 

This year we bought a tie dye egg kit. 

The eggs turned out pretty cool, but it was a much more labor and time intensive process than I expected. 

As you can see towards the end we just started dipping the eggs in the colors to finish faster. 

Easter morning started off super early. Finley was very excited to see what the Easter bunny had brought him in his basket. 

Then we had a fun egg hunt around the house. Finley at first complained that the Easter bunny didn't hide the eggs very well. But after getting the more obvious eggs, he did need help finding the last few. 

We hid thirty eggs in all! 

David insisted on having one of the eggs filled with some money. I believe this is a tradition the Harris Family had when they were growing up; "The Money Egg."

After church we headed over to Mimi and Pop Pop's house for some more fun. 

Of course Mimi had to hide some of her own eggs for Finley to find. And again Finley started off the egg hunt by criticizing her for making it too easy. In the end, he did need some help again.

Next year I am going to make it super hard for this kid to find his eggs. Nothing in plain sight!

My good friend Rizzo was in town for the weekend and she stopped by for a visit! So fun to visit and catch up with old friends.

That evening we had a delicious Easter dinner with Mimi, Pop pop, Uncle Donovan, Nani, and my Uncle Pete and Aunt Dolly. It was a lot of fun spending time with family and visiting. 

Now I just need to get rid of all this candy in my house! I am seriously in trouble!