Pirate Party for a Buckaneer and a Princess

Here is my two precious birthday pirates!

Addie and Corbin share the same birthday month: April 7th Addie turned 4 and April 27th Corbin turned 6.  We have celebrated several birthdays for these two together. This is the first year that Corbin groaned about sharing a birthday with Addie. So we shall see what the future holds.

I was able to get some pics of the pirates.

The mustaches were so fun. We had a dress up table for the kids to add to their pirate costume as they liked. Girls could have a tutu and sword eye patches and makeup. Boys had the same but no tutu/ sashes and bandannas. I had made paper pirate hats as well, but they were hard to stay on while running and jumping off the plank.

We found this little pirate

who loved the sword

But adding the mustache was going too far. Maybe not a pirate after all...

Pirate games were first on the agenda. We had two pirate ships who found each other and broke out in a paper cannonball battle. (most of my ideas came from my best friend who did this for her sons sixth birthday party. Thanks Anna)

Some of the kids walked on the water to retrieve more cannonballs to throw. ha ha
The ship with the most cannonballs inside lost and had to walk the plank. We played a few times and the boys ended up walking the plank.

This game was the battle of the crew. Each pirate went in their own end of the stretchy tunnel and climbed over the other to reach the other side. The winner emerged first.

There were pirates of all sizes at our party. Fun fun!

Our Captain Hook game ended quickly. The parts broke too easily and these girl pirates waited for the next game.

The food was so much fun to make. We had these ice cream cupcakes, anchor sugar cookies, pretzel swords dipped in chocolate and our pirate cake.

Pintrest had great ideas for a pirate menu: popcorn cones, octopus dip, jello ships, salty island with dip, and goldfish.

We made our deck the ship. You can see our mast, wheel, and plank

I let Matt man the craft. We made paper boats for our races.

The boys went first but found their ships a bit more delicate that anticipated and most of them sunk.

So they played on the ship while the girls made their boats.

Captain Corbin calls, "All aboard."

The girls liked making the boats more than sailing them.

These two are such pals. So cute, Micah turned to Addie as they were watching kids play on the ship and walk the plank, and he said, "your dad can make anything, can't he?" Addies response. "of course."

Pirates or Princess' we haven't decided. Maybe a little of both.

See he just isn't a mustache guy.

Now the finale. Aunt Rebekah had written a pirate map with clues to find the treasure. The older kids jumped all over this and lead the way as they ran from clue to clue.

Others couldn't keep up and manned the ship in their absence.

So at last they found the treasure and we whacked it into submission.

Happy Birthday to our pirate and princess!

Princess Adaline and Princess Sarah

Princess' Melanie, Natalie, Sophie, and Adaline

opening presents...

Matthew trying to fill Eric's shoes with Tracey, Levi and Maggie (nicked named snow white)

Princess Adaline and Jillian

Now for the grizzly Pirates: Jansen and Corbin

Pirate Corbin and Tayden

Pirates Tayden, Corbin, Jansen, and Micah

Thanks for all the help with our Birthday party. Love our Aunts (here with Rebekah)

We had such a terrific time, Thanks to all our friends for coming to celebrate with us!

Corbin's World Speeding for the Sharp Bend

We have soo loved our summer together.  Looking back we have stuffed so much into our summer yet I feel like we barely got started.

Some of Corbin's highlights that I have been terrible about blogging, I'll jump through now.

Corbin played soccer in April and May. From day one he said he didn't like it, played and had fun, but come the end of the season he said he still did not like soccer. We had amazing coaches and great kids on the team, just not Corbin's thing. Maybe another sibling will like it. We had a great experience into the sports world. Perhaps we will try basketball this winter.

At the end of the school year Mrs. Mathes' class put on a Kindergarten program to show what they had been learning all year. It blows my mind that they are able to read by the end of Kindergarten.

Most of the boys gave this non committal hug to the young teacher. Mrs. Mathes is the best teacher.

We will miss the kind heart of Mrs. Mathes. I know God is already preparing our teacher for 1st grade.

 Our biggest summer highlights have been anything outdoors.
We went on a family camping trip to Buffalow Trace Park. Great place for family camping with a lake, beach to swim, fishing, and bike riding at every turn.

 Okay, picture the Murphy five all in one canoe. Hold still everyone!
We made it across the lake, but Aiden was done with his confinement and needed out.

 The kids tried to fish. Nothing was biting.

 Beautiful weather and camping.

We had borrowed my parents camper so there was a little relief from the outdoors when needed but Aiden just hated being in there to sleep. Aiden and sleeping made our weekend very challenging.

Corbin also went camping with Matt and Grandpa Murphy for father's day. As you can see he was in the water non stop. Matt said he really didn't leave the water except for meals and sleeping. He had a ball fishing, catching frogs and swimming.

He had much better luck here at Lake Celina. They had this special spot they canoed out to and Corbin never took his life jacket off. Matt said most of the fish were this small but Corbin could not have been happier. Corbin made Matt fry them up for dinner.

 Corbin likes setting up for a picture and wanted to photo shoot all his animals. These three have been inseparable and follow each other everywhere. Mostly it's Corbin leading the way and the other two following.

Both kiddos have become little fish this year. Last year Corbin almost had it, but this year he is unstoppable. He can swim in the deep and even dive off the diving board. Corbin was doing flips off the diving board by the end of the evening. Addie has even surpassed Corbin this year in swimming ability, although as Matt put it she looks like a cat with her head barely above the water. She is fearless.

It is fascinating watching my children grown in skill and knowledge. Corbin is always wanting to learn how to do things for himself. Yesterday he was asking me to show him how to fry his own egg for breakfast. While he is to young to cook on the stove I offered to show him how to scramble his egg and cook in the microwave. He is not a fan of the scramble so he said that I could go ahead and cook his egg this morning.
Both kids make their own beds being only 6 and 4 I am thrilled. When I look at Corbin I just see such a big boy, he is no longer the baby/toddler/or even timid new school boy any longer. This week he told me he didn't want his toys anymore. That big boys don't play toys. I said that dad has toys his shop is full of them. Corbin didn't buy that. He says he wants to be big like a dad. :)
I can't wait to teach Corbin new things this year, both spiritual and earthly. It will thrill my heart to be able to talk to him about a relationship with Jesus and we still have not tackled tying his shoe.
My precious first born getting so big.