Diego's Peter Pan Party

Why is it that I never think ahead to photos at the party? It used to be that my sister was free to snap as many shots as possible when she'd come but some little guy (who's having a birthday next week... can it be!?!) makes it a bit more difficult for her to snap photos non-stop. So, when she arrives, I immediately spring it on her that I expect her to take pics like she normally does. That's not very nice of me, is it? And she obliges the best that she can. So, most of these are from her off my lame point-n-shoot (one of these days I'm gonna get a big girl camera) and some of them are my momma's and a big thanks to both of them for being willing to take pictures last minute like. Thank you!!!!

The invite, specified that costumes for the party were highly encouraged. But just in case anyone forgot, and didn't want to miss out, we had quick costumes (okay, hats and headband) to put on so no one would feel left out. Some very kind adults played along.

You can see Emily chose to be a lost boy and the corner of a pirate hat... we also had Indian headbands... feathers, not dots. 

Many came in costume already. Here's my aunt Nine... who always goes above and beyond (you'll see in a minute!)

This is her pirate husband Ken (my kids call him Mr. Ten) and my mermaid sister.

My little Tiger Lily and my husband who came as Nana!

The hat didn't stay on long, as you can see... something about the fur ear flaps being hot... Cruz was Michael and I was ever so glad his costume was already something we had on hand!

A pirate, Tink, and Wendy ate with the birthday boy.

The inside of the house was where we spent the majority of our time... it's too stinking hot in the middle of July! Why did I decide to have a baby then? And the inside was decorated with pirate stuff... here's the entry:

We also had the favors sitting in a basket so no one would miss them on their way out.

Themed food, cupcakes and chocolate gold coins in the treasure chest... we used Diego's Play Mobil to decorate the table.

Grilled tic-toc clock pizzas. My daddy and I were out on the drive in a hundred-plus degree weather for over an hour grilling all of these. Thank you, Daddy! (We used carrots sticks for hands. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the dough, made it the day before and kept in the fridge until it was time to make them. I just used spaghetti sauce from a jar because I'm into easy and when cooking 30+ pizzas nothing is terribly easy to begin with, so you look for ways to cut corners.)

We also had walk the plank cheese, cannon ball grapes, and codfish crackers.

Diego loves having the attention of everyone... he handed out his own cupcakes this year. I love that boy!

Our absolute favorite part of the evening was opening the gift from Nine and Mr. Ten. The box had air holes, was moving and had "Danger! Beware!" scrawled on it. He was afraid to even open it so had to have some help. 

When it was finally open, one of the big boys tipped the box over to let it out.

Finley, went for it right away... this blur of a photo, is Diego "saving" Finley from the treacherous jaws of croc just in time! Huge hoot!

Towards the end of the party, we moved outside to enjoy the rest of Neverland since the temp had dropped to somewhere in the upper 90's...

Here's Tink blowing bubbles from one of the peace pipes we had set up at the tipi!

The kids splashed around in the Mermaid Lagoon, which we might have had pictures of if the fire department hadn't decided to visit about then. Something about looking for kids in the neighborhood that were burning paper... we didn't look suspicious at all with all of our burned paper signs all over the house (that I'd made over my kitchen sink at my house the day before). It probably didn't help that we were all dressed respectably as pirates and mermaids and lost boys and such. Fun, fun! Never a dull moment, that much is for sure!

Thanks to everyone who came and helped make Diego's 5th Birthday so special... we love you!