Austin is 4

I have so much to catch up on.  Austin's birthday is on December 26, that's right, the day after Christmas.  So far, in his short 4 years of life, I think he's made out pretty good on his birthday.  We always make sure we celebrate it separately from Christmas, making sure we don't even use Christmas wrapping paper.  In the past, we were suffering from a case of crazy, and we had a party on the 26th, the day after Christmas.  Think about what your house looks like the day after Christmas, and then imagine running around like a mad person, shoving presents under a tree and getting ready for a party.  So this year, we went for a different approach, and we had his party the week before Christmas.  It was so much easier that way.  While I would rather have his party on his birthday, it was a needed change.

Austin has been talking about his birthday since April, when we were getting ready for Kamdyn's first birthday.  Thanks to Jake and the the Neverland Pirates, he wanted a pirate party. 

The front door:

As you entered the house:

Banners:

I made two banners with felt.  I cut triangles.  I left one black, put a skull on one, and red stripes on the other.  Glue gun, hole puncher, and yarn, and voila!  A banner.  Not perfect, but piratey.

Pirate vests line the wall of the steps.

The kids could take one down on their way in.

Treasure maps:

Two of the stations for the Treasure Hunt:

At each station, they got an item to put in their goody bag, but the real treasure was the treasure box.

The treasure, complete with chocolate gold coins.  I made the treasure box with a Luvs diaper box by covering it with brown construction paper, duct tape, and a little piece of black construction paper to look like a key hole.  Inside, I put a folded up towel, just to take up some of the room on the bottom, because I wanted it to look full.  Then, I put yellow tissue paper and shiny gold Easter grass stuff (don't know the real name) on top.  Finally the bags of gold coins went on top.  The kids loved it.

The back door:

It's hard to see, but this door is right behind our kitchen table, where the cake would be.  It says Happy Birthday Austin with a pirate ship and little pirate in window marker.  It looks pink, but it's really red.

The pirates arrive:

The birthday pirate:

The cake:

What can I say about this cake other than AMAZING!  A cake like this would certainly cost hundreds of dollars, unless you have an awesome friend who just happens to dabble in amazing, out of this world cake-making.  This cake actually brought me to tears at the end of the party, because I was so thrilled that my boy had such a special day. 

And the presents:

He happily displayed each gift with pride. 

After he opened each present, he smiled and held them up in the air for everyone to see.  He did that with every one.

Even the really heavy pirate set from Pop Pop and Mom Mom that Daddy had to help him hold up.

I got a little misty eyed one other time, as silly as it sounds.  When he thought the presents were done, and he had opened them all, Austin looked at me with a smile beaming and in the most cheerful voice said, "Mommy, the presents are all gone!"  I seriously love this kid.  Anyone with young children knows that the typical response would be something along the lines of "I want more presents!" or "Where's the rest of my presents?!"  So his response thrilled me.

My sweet, happy boy:

Cutting the cake:

And a little video:
You will want to turn down the volume for this video, though.  First of all, I underestimated the volume of my own singing.  Secondly, I'm not a very good singer.