Hugo turns 8

Hugo’s birthday landed on a Monday this year, which resulted in a party that lasted for 3 days. Lots of cousin action, time on the paddle board, swimming, and a pirate themed party. This was the first year that Cassidy has ever been with Hugo on his actual birthday, and she went all out building a 3-tiered cupcake tower (pirate themed), making all of the food, and decorating the backyard with balloons and banners.

We all spent the first day and a half flipping around here –

Below is a video of the crayfish that was caught at the pond in the morning.

Paxy was so excited to give the present that he got for Hugo. After Hugo opened it, I heard Pax say in this sweet quiet voice, “I’m happy that you love the present I got for you Hugo”. It was a Playmobil pirate with a cannon.

We made pinatas the week before that added to was some fast fun. I hid geodes around the back yard for some birthday smashing and all the gifts had to be found with treasure maps. Hugo got a scooter, some lovely books, a super strong magnet for finding treasure under water, art supplies and lots of Playmobil pirate toys. (He has been looking forward to recreating battle scenes and shipwrecks in the bathtub)

On the morning of his actual birthday, the boys rode on The Sea Gypsy as pirate crew mates. They used maps to find treasure underwater at Pirate Cove. All the kids on board were so excited to pull the treasure out of the sea, and then an epic battle was won against a traitor pirate. When it was done, Hugo said he wanted to do that every year.

After the ship adventure and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought the day was over. But a friend texted me to say that there was an end of the summer party at the gym that Hugo takes Ninja classes at. So we kept going.

The boys spent the last ounce of energy they had at this gym, climbing and jumping and running and tumbling. After an hour Hugo said he was completely done. By the time we got to the house, he had a fever and was ready to go right to bed. The next day (today) has been a sick day.

It’s been such a hard summer for all of us. It feels good that both the boys just enjoyed being kids on Hugo’s birthday.