Robbins: Porter turns 4!

Porter turned four years old this month! I can't believe it. He wanted to have a pirate party, and we had fun making and cutting out free printables that we found on Pinterest. He was happy with the results and almost everything was done from the comfort of home. Hooray!
Some things we love about Porter:

He is artistic! He loves to do art projects, and asks to do them daily, even hourly sometimes. :) He has become pretty good at drawing and painting.
He is a great big brother. Porter plays so well with Tyson (usually), and I love hearing the little things that come out of his mouth. "Tyson, I have a special job for you." "Tyson, do you want to play trains?" "I'm gonna tickle you, little baby!" "Ewww! Tyson, you are a pooping MACHINE!"
His persistence. Porter gets something in his mind and he will do all he can to persuade you. He is a little sales man already! Every morning I will hear things like "Mom, do you want to hear my good idea? I was thinking we could go to the dinosaur museum, or something like that. Isn't that a good idea?" Or sometimes he will even barter. "Mom, how about I will help you clean up these toys, and then we can go to my cousins house, ok?"
His imagination. Porter can play for hours with that active imagination of his. He can entertain himself with a pencil for an hour, pretending it is a space ship, airplane, etc. He makes sound effects for every toy he plays with and is amazing at mimicking sounds of all sorts.
His open personality. He is not shy and is so willing to belt out singing loud at preschool, participating in church activities, etc. It is fun to be his mom.
His complete boy nature. He is all boy, and I love him to pieces.

Porter - 4 years old.

So the party was essentially a "treasure hunt" to find Porter's missing birthday cake. The cake was made by my talented friend Kate, isn't it amazing?

So the cake was missing, but a map was there, and there was our first clue. It read-

Ahoy, me mates! Come join us on a special treasure hunt,
For missing birthday treasure that’s hidden somewhere on the front.

This old treasure map can guide you there today,
but beware of tricky challenges that will get in your way.

We got to our first destination and found the second clue. (I didn't get a picture of this game, but there was a pirate ship that had holes in the sails and they had to throw the balls through the sails.) That clue read-

Good job little pirates, you’ve found your first clue!
But you must first complete a challenge, before I’ll tell you next what to do.

Look over yonder at the pirate ship there! Do you see other pirates on deck?
Yes! They want your treasure, so take these cannon balls and make a ship wreck!


The map next took them out to the deck where they found another clue, it said- What amazing treasure hunters ye are, it is true! But do you think you can pass another tricky challenge and get your next clue? Aboard all pirate ships, little pirates have to earn rank And what better way than to make them WALK THE PLANK!


This was their last challenge before they found the cake, this one said- Great work, me hearties! But if you think you are done you are not! You have one more challenge until you find where X marks the spot. Now just look at your pirate ship, it’s the messiest I’ve ever seen! Before you can find treasure you must swab the deck clean!

When they found the cake, there was a little message with it that said-

Yo ho ho, let’s do a pirate jig!
Where x marks the spot, for the treasure we did dig!
What hard working pirates you all are, now this treasure we will take
So join me in the kitchen and we’ll all have some cake!