celebrating 6

 sometimes you have a child that turns 6....

its monumental, just like every age.

so you celebrate BIG.

 we started the day off with balloons, singing, presents, and of course... 

mcdonalds for breakfast with the jackson's and yaya.

answer to an earlier post : decided to do it, and it's been 3 weeks and we have no regrets.(a big thank you to all the responses, i really really really thought long and hard about this.) we set up rules and limits and threats and so far we have not had to implement any of them, jude gets bored of it before too long and is playing something else. also, i myself have already mastered super mario bros and trevan has spent some QT with lego star wars. lol... we may need the monitoring.

 little cubbie ADORES jude, especially on his birthday.

 jude's leapster for 2 christmas's ago is officially greta's now and to ward off any birthday fighting we got her her very own game and she LOVES. she on the other hand has had her leapster taken away 2x already. who woulda thunk? oh yeah, i remember now.

p.s. her morning hair is amazing grace.

 this year we broke tradition of a mcdonalds birthday party with friends and hosted a pirate themed party at my house. it was a lot of work... but thanks to yaya it all came together.

i had 15 kids at my house, 15 kids under 6. 

yowza.

i've learned with the 6 and under crowd that activities keep the craziness at bay so we had lots of activities in our short 90 minutes together.

 

when our guest first arrived they decorated their "booty" bags because at every activity they received a treasure.

 

cutest little wench anyone's ever seen.

and yes, those pirate costumes came in real handy this year... reduce, reuse, recycle.

we played pin the sword on the pirate, followed by musical island hop (not pictured).

boys vs. girls in my toy world.

the party goers:

cohen, kayson, tage, max, JUDE, roen, milo (william where are you?)

lucy, poppy, gabi, greta, minie, grace, bella

 walking the plank over shark infested waters

 max & jude  

(can i tell you how much i love that jude finally has school friends?!?!?)

 pirate earring toss.

 pirate conecakes

 pirate reading of 'the jolly pirate, roger'

and did you notice yaya in full pirate garb? she is the best and totally in her element. she is an elementary school librarian after all.

we are a family of routine, and the only place we know to have a fantastic birthday party dinner is rock creek pizza (it was jude's request).  have you been yet? get.in.my.belly.

 dem guys.

 a really awful picture of the grandparents, but they were there and they are loved. 

p.s. dad, get a new look. xo

 pirate presents!!!

 EZ!

(note the pirate shirt... again, as per jude's request)

 my kids are the luckiest to have my mom and trevan's mom as their grandma's.

told you so.

my boy and me,

6 years together and forever to go.