Happy Birthday to Garrett!

Garrett turned 5 a few weeks ago and we partied it up pirate style. He has been planning his pirate party since we had Abby's princess party in January. Of course, Greg was able to get Garrett in tears a few times when he told him we were just using Abby's princess stuff and having another princess party, but the pirates pulled through on the big day! 

He couldn't wait to open his presents and was even sweet enough to let Abby help.

Greg got Garrett a little set of toolbags he can wear when he helps Greg at work. Garrett loves to go work with his dad and was excited about his toolbags that are just like dad's.

Grandpa Willy and Grandma Jan gave Garrett this baseball glove and ball. Garrett was so excited and I found myself getting a little choked up thinking about Garrett being old enough to play baseball this year.

Of course, we had to share some good family baseball stories and Greg did his best impersonation of one of his brothers who especially loved America's Favorite Pastime. (Any guess who he might be here?)

 I asked Willy if the gift included a contract promising he would pay to replace all of the windows broken by the above baseball. He told me that over all of the years with all of his kids, they only had one window broken by a ball...and it was a soccer ball. Greg started laughing and shared the story of how his dad had told him not to kick the soccer ball against the side of the house, but of course, he kept doing it until he broke a window in the garage. He panicked and found a huge rock and set it in the garage by the broken glass. When Willy came home, Greg told him somebody had thrown a rock through the garage window and broken it. Willy got upset and was ready to call the police when Greg figured he better just come clean and tell the truth. It's been a favorite family story ever since.

Garrett also got his first set of real Legos and has had so much fun building with them. Grandpa Willy needed a little screwdriver to assemble something that came with the Legos and was pretty impressed by lovely pink toolkit.

As previously mentioned, Garrett had requested a Jake and the Neverland Pirates party. (It's a Disney show he loves). For about 30 seconds, I dreamed of inviting all of his little friends over and throwing a pirate party worthy of Pinterest, but then I came to my senses and bought some cheap decorations at Wal-Mart, hung up some crepe paper, and invited our families over to celebrate. I figure I'll hold off on the billion dollar friend parties until he is old enough to actually ask for one and care.

We grabbed a bunch of his pirate toys from his room and threw them on the table with the cake and it turned out great!

Speaking of cake, I was pretty proud of this one. I bought a simple cake from Sam's Club and put some of his pirate toys on it. It was really cute and he loved it!

Garrett cracked us up when told us he wanted to have a "surprise party." He had us rolling when he explained exactly how it would work and even made us practice where we were going to stand and what we were going to say when he walked in for the big "surprise." When it was time for the party, I sent him out back with Greg while our families came in. Our families are such good sports and even dressed up as pirates for the big occasion. Garrett was so excited when he came in!

Garrett had been telling us for several weeks he really wanted "The Jolly Roger" (Captain Hook's pirate ship) for his birthday. He already had a pirate ship and I had decided I wasn't going to buy it for him because I didn't think he didn't needed two, but that's what grandparents are for. My parents didn't want him to be disappointed on his big day and came through with the beloved Jolly Roger. Garrett was thrilled! Thank heavens for grandparents who are nicer than moms and dads.

We have the cutest video of Garrett when he walks in to his "surprise party," but I can't get it to load. I'll keep trying.