Max's 4th birthday

Believe it or not, this is our 300th post. Crazy.

At the start of last month, we all threw Max a party for his 4th birthday. This is probably that last awkward year where the list of invitees depends more on who Holly and I know, rather than who Max knows. It will be interesting to see who shows up next time around!

It seems to be the thing to do to theme it up with preschoolers so we decided to go for it this year and give Max a special parrrrrrty. (That's pirate speak for pirate party). We looked online for some ideas and it's MIND-BLOWING the lengths to which some parents go for a four-year-old's party. So we took it down a few notches and planned only two activities (seriously, some parties seemed to have four or five).

We started off at 10:30 in the morning with a craft for the kids - Holly unearthed a pile of her decorating supplies and everybody decorated their own treasure chests. At the end of the party, once all the paint dried, everyone got to stash their loot in the chests.

After the chests were all decorated, all of the kids and parents went outside where Max was presented with a giant treasure map (it was delivered to the mailbox - wink, wink). The map led Max and his fellow marauders to a few different locations around the block where we had stashed some pirate accessories (hats, eye patches andswords), chocolate coins, and a treasure chest filled with jewels at the end.

Once they were all kitted out, the pirates returned to the house for some grub (pizza, and lots of it). A really cool moment kind of happened organically: all of the kids were quietly eating at the table with minimal supervision while the parents got a chance to chat in the next room. It was neat to allow our friends to meet one another while their children took themselves off their parents' hands. Considering the age of the crowd and the energy levels at a birthday party, I was really surprised that this happened.

Finally, before everyone started tucking into their pirate cupcakes, I treated the crowd to the telling of a pirate story, read from a book that Max's Winnipeg Grandma bought for him this past summer. It was a big hit! Max's Auntie Laramie did an awesome job fusing some cupcakes and decorations together to create a pirate ship for Max (including a Twix plank - awesome!).

All in all, it was a great party. Everyone had a lot of fun and it wasn't even that stressful for me (for those of you who don't know me, this really isn't my kind of thing). The only bummer was that the party couldn't line up on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (the 19th of September). A big thank you to Kerry, Laramie, James and Jessa who helped out a lot with the set-up, execution, and clean-up of the party. Laramie and James even came in costume. It definitely wouldn't have gone as smoothly without you guys! Big thanks to Auntie Jan who sent the amazing pirate chest all the way from Victoria, BC. Also, thanks to Henry for deciding to stay inside a little longer to let Max have his special celebration.