Aaaaarrrrggghhhh, Matey!

My son's favorite character right now happens to be Captain Jack Sparrow. Anyone else start belting out a rendition of Michael Bolton's "Lonely Island"... "this is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow..." So, no. Just me? Anyway, I digress.

Maybe not the best parenting decision ever to let him watch Pirates of the Caribbean. It is what is and he decided he wanted a pirate party for his 6th birthday. A few months prior I started my Pinterest board and I'm SO very happy with how it all turned out. I don't have specific links mainly because I'm too lazy to go back and look for every single thing, but you can find everything pretty easily with a search.

 My talented hubby carved the watermelon shark and we added some red food dye to make it extra realistic!

 These cupcake wrappers and flags were free printables I found! I used a mini Twix bars to represent a boat.

 I used a fish cookie cutter to make PB and J sandwiches. The labels were free somewhere, too.

 I actually came up with this one myself. I used breadstick dough, cocktail sausages, and almond slices to make fingers. I cut each breadstick in half and formed it over the sausage before baking.

 I used a sand pail filled with rocks to make the base of my pirate flag. I covered it in leftover drop cloth from another party and used PVC pipe spray painted black for the pole. The table is covered in the leftover drop cloth and I used the tablecloth section I cut off for the flag as a runner on the table.

 The flag is just a Target plastic table cloth. I bought mini bags of Pirate's Booty. I made egg salad seaweed wraps.

 Grilled Parrot - chicken wings

 Super Cute Pirate Princess

 Walking the plank over a kiddie pool filled with toy sharks. The birthday boy is in the front with his birthday shirt. Side note - I have a shirt made each year for the boys' birthdays. When they outgrow the shirt, I put them in their 'to save' bins and plan on having a T-shirt quilt made when they leave for college or get married.

   Pirates VS the British in a water balloon canon fight. There was laughing, crying, and much mud!

 

NOT PICTURED - I had plastic glasses filled with blue jello and gummy sharks. Each kid left with a cup filled with 'treasure' - beads and wrapped gold chocolates.   

 

I think he had a great time turning 6!

Oatmeal - Not Just for Granny!

First of all, I am an oatmeal fan.  My kids are oatmeal fans.  We leave at the crack of dawn (during daylight savings time, it's still dark) and I love being able to give the kids a decent breakfast without spending time in the morning on it; I refuse to wake up before 5.  It's just not normal.  This baked oatmeal recipe can be cooked anytime and reheated.  Score and score.

It does have some brown sugar and butter in it, but when you factor in the per serving amounts, it's acceptable for my relatively healthy standards.  (It definitely beats cereal and cereal bars).  I love that it's quick and easy to make and I love that it's versatile enough to use what you have on hand. I typically use fresh fruit, but frozen is fine as well.  If you're like me and have frozen bananas in the freezer, you can kind of mash them in the mixture instead of having them sliced on top. Thanks to this awesome post we always have a healthy, warm breaky!

PS - I double the recipe and bake in a greased 13x9.