Ahoy Birthday Boy!

Arghhh, it's me birthday!

Last Saturday we celebrated Hudson's second birthday and it was a blast! Despite some drama earlier in the day, I was ready and anxious to get the party started. Those of you who know me at all probably know that I LOVE having birthday parties for my boys. I get the biggest thrill out of taking a theme and making it over the top. I start thinking about the big day months in advance and spend countless (wo)man hours planning all the details. Having two really fun and imaginative boys is a big motivator.

So the pirate party was no exception. My big project was the cardboard pirate ship. I found this great website called Mr. Mcgroovy's that featured all these blueprints for building awesome forts, ships, castles etc. out of cardboard boxes. It looked simple and awesome. So I decided against Matt's better judgement to build this ship for the kids to play in at the party. The directions said it would take about three hours to cut and build plus time to paint. That was probably an underestimation on Mr. Mcgroovy's part. That ship took me at least 20 hours to create, due in no small part to my absolute inability to measure correctly and impatience with directions. When creating these blueprints he could never have guessed that I, his customer, would have the arm strength of a newborn kitten and would not be able to wield a box cutter in an effective manner. A simple box cutter. Who knew that it would be the most complex tool I would ever use. At first, I blamed my problems on what I just knew was Matt's dull, shoddy cutter. He listened to my rant, calmly suggested that it is a poor workman who blames his tools (ughh), but still went and bought me a brand new cutter, and of course he was right, it was me. So countless hours later I had those dumb boxes cut and assembled. I have to say that the final product was pretty cool, my boys loved it and that made me so happy. Now, to get it to my in laws for the party.

The afternoon leading up to our 5:00 party was a little warm to say the least. My mom and I headed over to set up while Matt stayed with the napping boys. I started to unload and snap together that ship in the backyard and then realized that having an outside birthday party in the middle of July had to rank at the top of my list of stupid things I have done in my life. It was like roasting on the surface of the sun. My mom left after a little while to pick up more stuff and I faced the task of shipbuilding alone. Around 4:15 Matt rolled into the driveway with the kids and the first words out of his mouth were: "Why in the world are you lying in the grass?" Well, frankly I was lying in the grass because I had decided to choose a place to die. It was that blasted hot. My cute sundress and hair were drenched and my makeup had dripped down my face. Add in the fact that I had shoved pirate napkins in my armpits and down the front of my dress to try and staunch the waterfall of sweat and the look was not so much "Happy Birthday" as " Sad Dead Clown."

It all finally came together and things were a little cooler and shadier by party time. The kids had a blast swimming AND playing in the super awesome pirate ship (which by the way, was named after Hudson's favorite thing to eat, Ketchup). Another side note, for those of you wondering what happened to the ship after the party, we donated it to our church's vacation bible school which had a high seas theme this year. That was a major part of my argument for building it to begin with, I told Matt it was as if we were doing the Lord's work. I was kind of like Noah.

Anyway, the birthday boy was wild with excitement (even more so than normal) and loved jumping in the pool with all his friends. Watching him at his party just reminded me of all the things that make Hudson uniquely Hudson. He knows no fear (with the exception of the occasional lawn mower) and sees fun in every single thing no matter how dangerous his mother thinks it is. In fact, 3more danger just equals more fun to him. He is going to be my adrenaline junkie and I am sure I am in for many heart stopping moments and sleepless nights while he takes off to parts unknown on some crazy adventure. That spirit is the thing that I love the most about him and also the thing that terrifies me to no end. It is so unlike me (and his daddy). He is 100% his own (tiny) man and I hope he always stays that way. Matt says he is our child most likely to become an actual pirate :) I think that might be a slight exaggeration but there could easily be an around the world sail in his future. On Hud's birthday, Matt and I were talking about the day he was born and his personality as a newborn and infant. He was a very calm, quiet and laid back little guy and we thought that would be indicative of his personality for the rest of his life. We were so wrong. What we saw as quiet was really a just baby biding his time. I feel in my soul that he was just waiting for his adventure to begin and now it has and we just have to keep up.