Birthday party!

February is a busy birthday month for us. Both boys are February babies and our roomie/sister from another mister is also a February b-day. Easton turned 3 on the 3rd. We woke up, enjoyed a delicious birthday donut from aunt Kiki and let him watch movies, eat snacks and play all the games! We went to  swim lessons and plays a bit extra in the water park and got an extra treat from the sweets shop at Great wolf. So he enjoyed his golden birthday pllennntty.

I started planning their birthday party after Christmas. I decided that since the boys birthdays are only two weeks apart, that we should combine their party into one, rather than try to convince people to come out to two parties 15 days apart. I asked Easton what kind of party he would like and his input was 'a birthday party!' Well OK! A nice low bar set for mama, that kid gets it.

After pintresting up a storm, searching my favorite blogs for ideas, and repeatedly suggesting things to Easton (&whoever would listen) we finally settled on a theme: Pirates in honor of Easton's beloved Jake and the Never Land Pirates.

T.G.F.P [thank god for pintrest], amiright?!? I spent a lot of time pinning all the things piratey, thinking up decor ideas and trying to figure out how to pull it off on a small budget. Normally when I throw a party the first thing I do is make a list of TO DO, that becomes the main list and then there are usually around 5 additional lists: guests, decor, menu, games, and shopping. This just helps me keep everything in working order while not losing track of a 3 year old and nearly 1 year old and a puppy.

The menu came together really quickly and each dish was given a new pirate name. I took a piece of white drawing paper and stained it with coffee to give it that special treasure map look. Then i gathered my supplies: a lighter for burning the edges, a bowl for scraping the ashes in, glue and cardstock to help them stand up.

Each pirate dish was given a special name: Treasure Map Pizza & breadsticks, Planks & cheese [crackers and cheese], Fish & Chips [goldfish crackers and chips in bowl], Octopus dip [veggies and dip, but the dip was in a bell pepper with legs to look like an octopus], Rusty Cannonballs [bbq meatballs], Gold Doubloons [Nilla Wafers], Seaweed Salad [pasta salad], Pirates Jewels [fruit salad], and Eels in a Blanket [pigs in a blanket].  It was A LOT of food, I tend to over do it but there were almost 40 people there and we had enough food, little leftover!

I could not find a bunting or pirate banners anywhere, so a little construction paper and a couple of nap times and :

Finally, on Saturday we were ready for the party. I packed up everything and headed to my sisters house where we had the party. They have a great house that has nice big rooms, a sledding hill and can handle 12 kids on the GO!

And thats where the pictures end, at this point people started showing up and I got lost in the mix. We went sledding, opened presents and had a great time! And I went cheap on the cake and got [delicious] Sam's Club cupcakes. Which if you never have: GET SOME! they are so good. Luckily, we did capture a few cake shots:

It was a great birthday! We are looking forward to enjoying Hudson's real birthday on the 18th and not having to plan anything until....this weekend for roomie Katie!