Dance of Motherhood

Well shiver me timbers – I can’t tell you how RELIEVED I am that party day is over. Aside from all the celebrating, it’s just a LOT of work!

I should probably mention that we don’t do birthday parties very often around here. We usually go out somewhere… Local spots like Chuck E’ Cheese’s or a Family Fun Center, or day trips at Disneyland, Legoland, Sea World or Knott’s Berry Farm. Ending the evening with a mini-party of cake and presents.

BUT… for some reason, we decided that every 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th and 18th birthday – a party is a must. lol - just please don't ask me where those numbers came from.

And since birthday parties don’t occasion every year for us, we like to splurge a bit. ;)

You figured out what theme Jacob picked for his 7th birthday, and got a sneak peek at the invitations:

Aren’t they cute? We had a whole assembly line going. After I printed the custom invites, I’d trim ‘em (to center them) and we’d burn the top edge. When they were ready, we rolled them into scrolls. Jacob would be responsible for holding 1-2 scrolls at a time, and JC would tie them up with raffia.

After the scrolls were ready, we opened the “Message in a Bottle” invitations, tossed the standard invite that came with it, and slid our customized scrolls in. Voila! We made about 4 dozen of these, hand delivered most of them and mailed them to out of town guests.

SETTING THE SCENE
My favorite holiday is Halloween, so this was a perfect excuse to bust out some spooky decorations, topped off with some pirate party stuff we found online.

Driving into the neighborhood, kids would see the two crossed pirate flags at each corner, marking the spot to turn for moms and dads. Red, black and gold balloons lit up the driveway, but as you crossed closer to the front door, a buried skeleton seemed to rise up from his grave, and another skeleton kicked it by the front door in chains. Black crows and little rats scurried about (not really!) in the fog, and “Hoist the Colors” from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” played in the background.

What scene wouldn’t be complete without costumes? The boys and I properly got into gear – the hubby was perfectly fine loaning his costume to JC.

FOR THE KIDS
Upon arrival, our greeters gave each child a pirate name tag, then took their guesses for 3 different guessing games: Treasure chests filled with gold bubble gum coins, skeletons and gummy skulls.

The mates were steered to the backyard and started the afternoon off with a bounce and slide in the Palm Tree Bounce House. The shy ones hung out with their parents for a bit or gravitated towards the playground.

FOR THE KIDS AT HEART
As each adult walked through the door, our same greeters gave them 2 metallic bead necklaces and a raffle ticket. You remember the game where you can’t cross your arms or legs? Same thing here, except (lol) we’re at a birthday party and not a baby shower. But who cares? ;)

Most of the adults headed for some grub or picked up the mic for some video karaoke (videoke). Dads grabbed a beer from one of the coolers, and Moms had a Blue Hawaii (or 2, or 3)!

PARTY GAMES
We kept the games simple this year, and played just four:

-Hot Crab [Hot Potato]
-Booty Race [Musical Chairs]
-Peg-Legged Race [3-Legged Race]
-Swab the Deck

Swab the Deck was a hoot – the kids split up into teams and raced to see who could “swab the deck” the fastest by pushing a ping pong ball with a broom from one end to another and back. Different colored balls totally help with this one!

And since we don’t like to have any losers, each child won one of the following after each game:

-Pirate Bandanna
-Bling – Gold Coin Necklaces for boys and colorful Rhinestone Rings for girls
-Pirate Tattoos
-Loot of Golden Nuggets (bubble gum in a bag)

And Pirate Grabbers for the winners of each game. Cheap suckers… but they worked!

THE GRUB
This is, after all, a Filipino Party. (heh heh) Here goes: Pancit, Shanghai and Vegetable Lumpia, Okoy, Marinated Beef BBQ, Marinated Chicken BBQ, Chicken Skewers, Beef Steak, Stuffed Tilapia, Garlic Shrimp, Pinakbet and Kare Kare. Desserts: Brownies, Fruit Salad, Kutsinta, Puto, Pitsi Pitsi and Supin Supin.

Man – and to think we lightened up the menu this time!

WRAPPING IT UP
With cake and ice cream, of course! Afterward, we announced the winners of the three Guessing Games, awarding them with the respective treasure chest and another Pirate Grabber - thank goodness they hadn’t already won one from either of the games!

Then we pulled everyone outside to see who won the most beads. (If you caught someone crossing their arms or legs, you took all of their beads.) First place winner chose the free movie passes, and the runner up got first dibs on one of these chocolate candy bouquets I made for the party:

Everyone busted out their raffle tickets, and we started drawing numbers to raffle off the other prizes we had. Just a couple more bouquets and chocolate covered oreo stacks – all made at home without costing any more moola. ;)

The final giveaway was the loot bag we gave to each child when it was their time to walk the plank – a little “thank you” for coming out to celebrate with us.

TIMELINE
Some people started arriving as early as 12pm to help us get everything ready. The party officially started at 3pm, with me trying to cram everything into 3 hours for our guests. While the last winner was called out at 6pm, Jacob’s classmates slowly started taking off by 6:30pm, and relatives started to head out about 9:30pm.

But it didn’t end there. The Ortega’s and The Reyes’ hung out with us (and Mama and Papa, of course!) until after midnight. It was the first time Rachel and I got a chance to hit the videoke all night! A couple rounds of Patron got us going, and this is also when Jacob started tearing into his gifts. It was a full day - we had a blast.

And thank GOD that it’s over. ;)

CREDITS
Special thanks to everyone who helped us pull this off –
we couldn’t have done it without you!!

(I just received this gorgeous handmade card from Joe & Tammie - isn't it beautiful?!)

Mama & Papa: For driving in from San Diego and backing me up with absolutely anything and everything (including my costume!) - I could never even THINK about doing something like this without you guys… The Ortega’s: For driving in from Rancho Santa Fe and helping with everything from setting up the flags and balloons, whippin’ up some Beef Steak at the last minute, and helping put all the tables and chairs away… Grandma Belen: For helping in the kitchen and with the hostess duties… Auntie Virgie: For making almost all of the food and helping run the kitchen… The Javier Clan: For running the grill and stockin' the food... The Reyes’: For driving in and making the Chicken BBQ and Fruit Salad… Auntie Irene: For hosting the desserts… The Simeon's: Daisy and Eddie - for all your help with the kids and with the food... Daisy, Ling and JC: For being our official greeters and especially Daisy for running through all the guesses… Michelle and Diane and the other Hurley Moms: For taking charge of giving out prizes and distributing cake and ice cream… Corrie… for helping me run all the games and organizing the tables and chairs for Joe… The Meneses Family: For taking the day off to be able to drive in from LA to spend the day with us and for that crazy generous gift...!!

And to everyone else for all these wonderful gifts (Jacob's got some notes to write!) and most especially... for carving time out of their weekend to wish Jacob Happy Birthday and join our Buccaneer Bash…!