Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer had his 6th birthday last Wednesday (Mar. 19th). I encouraged him to have a pirate party because I knew my Mom had bought him this pirate ship.

It was a fun party. I had put Jason in charge of the map and buried treasure and he made sure it was as realistic as possible. We told the kids we were taking them on a little hike up the canyon to look for animals.

After a hiking and playing a little while, Jason told Spencer to put his stick up under a rock to see if any animals would come out. That's when he found the first bottle.

The kids were amazed. Jason had written a poem on the paper in this bottle, which led to another bottle holding the map. They were so excited. It never once crossed their minds that this may not be a real pirate map.

Some of the conversation went like this:

Spencer: "I cant believe it!! I'm having a pirate party and we find a treasure map! I can't believe it!"

Regan: "This is a miracle!"

One of the other kids: "This is a dream come true! I can't believe it!"

Not everyone was feeling the excitement. One little boy started crying and said he would not look for the treasure. He was really scared! I hadn't anticipated this. After trying for a while to change his mind, I finally had to take him aside and tell him that we made it all up. We told him not to tell the other kids yet, but he kept trying. They were so caught up in the pirate fantasy, they didn't believe him anyway.

Jason conveniently recognized the location on the treasure map from the second bottle, so we hopped into the car and drove to the second spot. From there we hiked to another area, where they decided on a spot to start digging.

They quickly found and dug out the treasure chest. They were even more amazed when they opened the chest and looked at the treasure. Among the jewels (found mostly at the D.I.) were Easter eggs full of surprises. Still having no suspicion that Jason and I may have buried it, they came to the conclusion that it was some sort of Easter Bunny pirate.

At this point, I tried to tell them that this was something we set up for them. Judging from the comments they made all the way home, I had not made myself clear. Back at home, before dividing up some of the treasure, I sat them down and made sure that they understood where the treasure came from. This was not easy for them to grasp. Apparently it's much more believable that we stumbled across a real pirate map that led to a real treasure while hiking during a pirate party.

After a dinner of hot dogs and chips, they broke open the pinata, opened presents and had pirate ship cake (more like a shipwrecked cake by the time I was done decorating it).

It was a great birthday. We had no idea they would have so much fun with the treasure hunt. It was definitely worth all the work just to hear their comments and see their reactions.