Happy 4th Birthday, Robin!

Better late than never, right?  Here are the pics from Robin's Pirate Party!

The cake I stayed up way too late decorating

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To start the day, we outfitted Robin with a goodwill costume and some accessories from his Aunt Kat

Once the kiddos arrived, we set up a plank for them to walk

After walking, they officially became pirates and received their pirate hook.  (Robin got a special, gilded one and a pirate hat, because he was the Captain)

What a motley crew!

Next they learned how to be pirates by going to "Pirate School" (which meant they danced to a Wiggles song sung by the Wiggles Pirate, Captain Feathersword)






After that they had to make sure they wouldn't lose any more limbs to a hungry crocodile (since everybody was already sporting hooks,) so they had to Feed the Croc

Next came a hunt for buried treasure

Then another pirate dance

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The last game was a treasure hunt.  Little maps sent them all over the house, searching out the treasure chest

At the end was a treasure chest filled with gold coins and an eye patch for each buccaneer

After the games we moved on to the cake.  This photo is blurry, but I like how you can see Robin trying to get a fingerful of frosting.  We have pictures of me and a friend of mine doing the same thing at my third birthday party.  (Okay, so maybe he's just pointing at it.)

"Happy Birthday to You!"

The candles were cannons, coming off the side.  This doubled as a way to keep fire away from the paper sails

Yum!

Eat that cake!

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The Croc claims a victim

*urp*

Opening gifts from friends

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Pirate battles

I think the cake was a hit

Of course, the toys had to be broken out

Some of the mommies (a few had left already)

Our pirate family

Opening further presents from family

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Lunch with family

This was an awesome party.  We got a lot of compliments on it, and friends were telling us we should be party planners.  I have to admit, it was probably my favorite of Robin's parties.  The kids were just at the perfect age, they all participated in the games and enjoyed them, and weren't old enough to think anything was dumb.  Everybody had a blast.  I even got reports that Robin's friends were playing "pirate" all day long and had to keep their hooks and eye patches by the bed so they could play again the next day.  That made me smile.  A lot of it was Dean's idea, too.  Past parties have mainly been planned by me, but Dean was gung-ho for the pirate theme and was researching games and cakes online in the weeks prior.  It was fun to see him get so enthusiastic too.

Thusly, Robin turned four.  It's hard to believe he's been four for more than two months now.  He's really growing up, and isn't so much of a little kid anymore.  Every day I marvel at how big he's gotten.  Where's my baby?  ...He's four now.  :)

Back on track for the rest of October

Okay, let's give this a shot.  Hopefully Blogger is working properly again.  So I'm picking up where I left off, at our visit to the pumpkin patch in mid-October.

Liam picking out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch

We got a really big pumpkin, too

Robin always loves bounce houses of all shapes and sizes

There was also an inflatable tent filled with blowing air and blowing balloons.

Both boys thoroughly enjoyed it

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After the pumpkin patch, we headed to my parents' house (we were in Longmont anyway, so it was easy.)  They put the boys to work helping rake their leaves

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Or was that to play with their leaves?

With Dada's help, they made a "house," or at least the floorplan of a house, out of leaves

I decided to jump in a pile

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Liam's just so darn cute, I take lots of pictures of him

On a particularly windy day in October, I decided to bring kites along to our playgroup

I have a very awesome parafoil kite that is very strong.

I probably shouldn't have used such a long line on an easy-to-unroll spool when four-year-olds were involved.

Suffice it to say, it got pretty high in the air and took a LONG time for me to reel in.

Oh well.  The kids had fun.

All of them

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Robin liked it so much he wanted to go out again later, though we don't have much of a kite-flying space near our house.  We went to a nearby empty lot, the best we had, and tried again.  Robin grew bored this time, though, and decided to take pictures instead.  Most were throwaways, but this one was neat.

A few Robinisms:
He says "Ma-rote" instead of "remote"
He uses the word "Menu" instead of "recipe" or "instructions"

Robin is absolutely in love with making books right now.  He's brought a fair number home from preschool, pages stapled together, sometimes with pictures, sometimes with random letters or real words, sometimes just containing squiggles.  He'll decide he's making the dinner menu while we're cooking, and will make a book, then ask us what we want to eat, and then ask us how to spell each food.  He's going through our stock of scrap paper at an alarming rate, but he's also getting good practice in for eventual reading.

One day at dinner, Robin said, "Do you want to hear my first joke?  The chicken crossed the road!"  (Laughs uproariously.)  "Do you want to hear my second joke?  The bike crossed the road and hit the chicken and the chicken got dead!"  (Laughs uproariously again.)

Liam's got a lot of words in his repertior now, and he learns new ones every day, it seems.  Today he suddenly came up with "choo choo."  Liam's really at a wonderful age, where he still wants to cuddle and comes running for comfort, but is also growing into an individual and making lots of discoveries.  He loves sharing his discoveries and is rarely defiant.  A year and a half is an awesome age!