Happy Birthday Little Man!

Camden turned four on Halloween. It hurt my heart. He's growing up so stinkin' fast, and there was nothing I could do about it except make the entire week a celebration. On Friday, we threw him a big fat Pirate Birthday Party with a bunch of his friends. Here's what went down...

If you know my personal Dave Ramsey, you know that party planning is not in the budget, but Camden had already requested a pirate party with cake and goody bags. My event-planning friend Paige is always sending me these fun blog links with party ideas, and I just so happened to stumble upon a Pirate Party entry over at Cottage Industrialist. The Blog owner was sweet enough to post up ALL of her printables for the party for everyone to use FOR FREE! All I had to buy was white cardstock for the invitations, thank-you cards, envelopes, Cupcake decorations, bunting, etc. All of this along with downloading (free) the Disney's Pirates of the Carribean font and playing with a little fire helped turn white card stock into pirate goodness for Camden.

Invitation:


I probably could have used some sort of computer tool to overlay a typed invitation on to this one before printing... but who has the time for it? (I'm well aware that I have the handwriting of a serial killer.) Props to Aaron for smudging out the address (because I STILL have no clue how to work photoshop.)


Invitation insert:




Captain Camden the Birthday Boy



This year's birthday banner


I used the flag printables along with the pirate font, cardstock, and a lighter to burn the edges. Camden LOVED this so much we left it hanging for several days (until I finally snuck it down when he was sleeping.)



The treats

I (Betty Crocker) made the cupcakes. Yes, I used a boxed cake mix. This is considered a travesty in my family, BUT I had THREE sick people in my house the entire week leading up to the party. I could barely remember my name much less make something from scratch. The printables covered up the cupcake anyway. Fortunately, the guests were little kids, not Top Chef Judges.


We went with Pirate themed snacks for his party.

Pretzel swords, Shark Bait (goldfish), and Camden's requested popcorn became Buried Treasure (popcorn with M&Ms on the bottom of the cup.)


Goody Bags

Captain Camden sent everyone home with their own Pirate Gear including pirate hat, eye patch, swashbuckling scarf, and treasure Map. (courtesy of the Dollar Tree)

Unwrapping his gifts from some fabulous family members!

Camden's new Zurg gun!

The Batman Cave is a HUGE hit at the house. Both of the kids spend hours playing with it. Caroline (Camden's first mate) has ditched her baby toys for Cam's big boy toys. Although I love seeing a girl battle it out with Mr.Freeze, I think it's time for some big girl toys for the Little Miss!

Cam LOVED playing with all of his friends at his party too!

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us! Camden is still talking about how much fun he had with everyone! I WISH I would have gotten a pictures of everyone's costumes because they were SO CUTE! Next year, I'm definitely going to have to hand off the camera!

My Little Man-
On the night before your birthday, you gave me one last 3-year-old kiss, and I asked you to stay this size forever. Your response? "No!!! I want to grow big just like my dad!" I think this will happen faster than I want it to. The last four years with you have been an absolute blast, Camden. You are such an amazing kid, and we feel so blessed to be your parents. Happy Birthday, Camaroo. We love you lots!

*edited to add- My two posts a week is still going! I finally published an October post on Tuesday, and I'm posting this two weeks after I wrote it. I finally got to unleash the hundreds of pictures from my camera on to my computer. By the end of this week I should be caught up on the unfinished blog entries! Wahoo!