 The day of the party finally arrived. We had worked so hard and planned so much and now it was time to have fun. Gavin was so excited that he could hardly stand it. He couldn't wait for everyone to arrive.
The first to arrive were Grammie (Brenda Phillips), Grandad (Bruce Phillips), and Susan Beck. Gavin was ready to show them everything. First he played outside with Grandad then he came in and took Susan to his room. He showed her everything and even talked her into reading him a book.
Not long after that Becky Bishop arrived. The adults worked to get last minute details taken care of and before long it was 3 o'clock and time for the rest of the company to arrive.
Just after 3 the door burst open and Kailyn Corbin burst in. She was so ready to see her cousin. She was quickly followed by the rest of her family including Keegan, Makenna, Elaine, and Addyson.
 Shortly thereafter the rest of the Corbins arrived. Uncle Garrett, Aunt Bridgett, Elizabeth, and Kirkland. They were closely followed by Dalena and Daniel Harrod. Then came the Gulledge family, Jennifer, Paul, and Haven (Xander had to stay home because he was still recovering from surgery.)
The kids all made themselves at home. They pulled out all the toys and climbed on Gavin's bunk bed (which by the way became a ship). In the top picture you see Haven, Keegan, and Kirkland playing pirates. In the next picture, Makenna, Elizabeth, and Kailyn are playing with the kitchen set.
 The next ones to arrive were the Mergels: Jennie, Kevin, and Aiden. By this time there were 24 people crowded into our little house!!
Now it was time to get all the kids together and start playing games. We started with "Pin your flag on the map". The kids took turns being blindfolded and spun around by Uncle Darren. Then they got to try and put their flag on the "X". This game got a lot of laughs.
In these two pictures you see Kirkland and Kailyn playing our map game.
After we finished the map game, all the kids got treat bags and we headed outside to dig for treasure.
We had filled a wash tub with 288 gold coins. Everyone was going to get a chance to dig for treasure of their own.
On this game, we let the youngest go first. Everyone was excited and had a hard time waiting their turn to dig in the sand, but they were great about it.
 In this picture you can see Kirkland, Kailyn, and Haven watching as Makenna was digging for treasure.
 After Makenna got her turn Aiden had a chance.
 Here is the birthday boy having his turn at the treasure digging.
 Here is Keegan digging for treasure while Elizabeth waits her turn. After everyone had a chance to dig for gold we let them all go back in and dig with their hands as long as they wanted to. I wasn't sure if the older kids would really be interested in digging for the gold, but it turns out that they were more interested than the younger ones. They worked really hard trying to get all the coins out of the sand. We still had gold coins until today though. The neighborhood kids found them in the sand which we had dumped out on the ground around Gavin's play castle.
 While some of the others were still digging for treasure, Makenna climbed up to take a break.
 Little Addyson didn't seem to be bothered by all the noise and commotion. She took it easy in her swing and had a nice nap.
 Just in case you are getting curious...yes, we still had adults around. Not sure what they were doing, but they were there. Hopefully they weren't too bored.
 Here is Kailyn just taking it all in.
 Here is Aiden taking a break with his sucker. After the kids had a chance to change into their swimsuits, they got to walk the plank. They all lined up and took their chance walking across the pool.  Here is Gavin walking the plank. He loved it as you can tell.  The girls, Elizabeth and Kailyn, enjoyed it too. In fact I think just about all of them did it more than once and I don't think anyone fell in the brink!!  Then it was time to slip and slide. Gavin and Haven couldn't wait to slide. They kept jumping up and plopping down on the tarps even before we had a chance to get the water turned on.  Kirkland was sliding down the tarp in this one. Makenna, Elizabeth, Keegan, and Gavin were waiting their turns.  Gavin kept running about halfway down the tarp and then flopping down on his bottom to make a big splash.  Now you know it wouldn't be a party if Darren didn't get a chance to act like the big kid that he really is. His favorite slide is his "baseball" slide. Do you think you could tag him out?  Keegan, Gavin, and Kailyn sliding.  More getting wet!  Keegan in the pool. After everyone got cleaned up and dried off it was time to open presents. Gavin flew through his gifts in record time. He did see what they were later though. Thanks to all of you for your gifts. Then it was time to eat supper. We had sandwiches, chips, and fruit salad. Afterwards we pulled out the cake.  Gavin picked out this cool ice cream cake. It was really hard for Gavin to wait through the Happy Birthday song and then Mommy slicing the cake, but he finally got his piece and got covered in the blue ice cream.  He wasn't the only one though. Haven was really getting into her cake too.  Elizabeth even turned her teeth blue!  After cake the kids, had to recover their stolen treasure from the scurvy pirate, Darren. By this time two of our neighbors joined the fun. In this picture you see Kirkland, Cello, Gavin, Darren, Dallas, Elizabeth, and Haven.
 Here are the kids pulling their treasure chests out of the big one.  Here is Kirkland showing off some of the stuff from his treasure chest. He really enjoyed dressing up as a pirate.  And of course, what is a Corbin get-to-together without Uncle Darren wrestling with Elizabeth. I think she beat him this time. All in all, we had a wonderful time. I think everyone else did too. We were so busy though I didn't have much time to talk with anyone, so hopefully we will be able to get together soon to catch up. Love you all and thanks again for helping to make Gavin's Pirate Party a success!!!
|
