On my Friday morning drive to work my mind was spinning circles. I was running through the day in my mind, planning my grocery list, making note of last minute details, reminding myself to get paint and paint brushes, packing tape, and treasure maps. Because this weekend was the beginning of Callie's birthweek celebrations.
Amidst all the buzz of activity in my brain, right in front of my eyes was the most beautiful, frost-covered landscape and pinkalicious sky that a person ever did see. It was absolutely Christmas card worthy...like someone deliberately glitter glued each branch and twig on every last tree. It caused my racing brain to shut down and breathe deeply. Taking it all in.
It was so magical that I swear I could here the clippity-clop of a horse-drawn carriage off in the distance. I reached for my camera but realized I didn't have it with me. And I knew that pink sky wouldn't last until I got to work. So when I got out to take the girls into daycare, I snapped this with my phone... a real life winter wonderland.
Every so often, on days like this, and this, I let myself wish that I wasn't going to work and instead I would be putting the girls in a sled and pulling them through the forest. We would make up stories about ice fairies and Jack Frost and how they do all this work while we are sleeping.
We've had a lot going on this past week. Every spare moment has been put into getting ready for our big girl's Big Pirate Birthday Party. Arrrr...
We had such fun with the little treasure maps that we had in the advent calendar for Christmas that it sparked the idea of a pirate party. I pitched the idea to the birthday girl about a month ago and she jumped on board with the idea and began swabbing the deck and calling her sister, "me hearty!"
If you ever google 'pirate party' the first thing you'll see is that every good pirate has a pirate ship. And voila, born is the awesome idea to build a cardboard pirate ship for Callie's party. A girl only turns 5 once, right? So the first thing I do whenever I have these brainwave ideas is call my mom. Because I may have some great ideas... but my mom and dad have the know how.
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| Party details: 1. Girl's shirts, 2. Party supplies, 3. Pirate ship. |
There were no blog posts last week because my evenings were dedicated to cutting cardboard, designing, and painting Captain Callie's ship. I was occupied with hanging jolly rogers, collecting booty and doubloons, and learning words like grog, landlubber and Davey Jones' Locker.
Shiver me timbers!
I know that building 14 foot pirate ship and having to move half the furniture out of the living room to make room for it may seem a little extreme for a five year old birthday party. And locating the perfect pirate shirts and having my mom sew tiny little pouches for the kids to hold their treasure seems a bit finicky.
But I love the details. And I love pirate babies and a good game of "walk the plank".
Ken Robinson talks about being in your element in his book "The Element".
"The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels."
When I am creating memories and moments of excitement for my girls... I am in my element. The pirate ship, the decorations, the details... those are for me as much as they are for the kids because creating and envisioning and anticipating the joy it gives to my girls is when I feel most inspired and I want to achieve my highest level. Because if time wasn't an issue, that ship would have had a faux wood painted deck, a parrot, a crow's nest and a flag that could be raised and lowered! Yo ho ho!
And having our friends come dressed in full pirate attire only adds fuel to my fire!
This party was the start of birthweek.
There will be more cake to come.
And more adventures and sword fights in the pirate ship.
And more memories to make.
Because pirate girl doesn't technically turn five until later in the week.
Good night for now, matey.
