Last week we had a birthday party for my stepdaughter Lydian. She turned 8 years old, and for quite some time now, she has had a thing for pirates, so naturally, we dove right into a pirate birthday party theme.

We probably had over 100 balloons all together, and our house never felt quite as small as it did when it was filled with balloons–to the point where we could barely take a step without hearing a balloon pop. We went through an entire Balloon Time helium tank (which blatantly lies about its capacity to blow up a certain number of balloons, by the way), and then pretty much all of the lung capacity my fiance could muster in the several hours it took him to get all of those balloons blown up. In additions to the balloons was, as you can clearly see, just about every pirate decoration we could find, all hanging up around our yard, back porch, kitchen, and of course the most-decorated room, the dining room.

We even had a pirate piñata.

Because we all know that pirates always have treasure, my fiance set up an entire treasure hunt throughout the backyard that ultimately led to her birthday present. He had her digging up parts of the yard, searching behind the shed, and even skimming up treasure from the bottom of the pool. The original plan was to have her go diving for treasure, but we had on and off showers throughout the day and it was a little too cold to go swimming.

When she did finally get to her birthday gift, I don’t think her anticipation could have been much higher.

She received a Nintendo 3DS for her birthday, a gift that she has been asking for leading up to every holiday for the past year–before the 3DS was even out and she was asking for a regular DS. Waiting that extra year or so was better than her receiving the Nintendo DS when she first asked for it, in my opinion. With that extra year not only came an upgrade to the gadget she wanted, but we also knew that she really did want it and it wasn’t just some passing fad. Most importantly, she wanted it enough to know that she has to be responsible with it, and it’s really great to see her embracing that responsibility wholeheartedly.

The birthday party wound down with cupcakes decorated with large pirate-themed candles and sports-themed icing decorations that did not fit the theme at all, but were fun and a detail that she enjoyed.

She forgot to make a wish when she blew out her way-too-many-candles-for-her-cupcake, so she made a quick wish after the candles were blown out, but it still counts.

At the end of her party, she insisted that this party was her best party ever, but I’m not sure if it’s the party that was the best ever, or if her gift was the best ever. Either way, it was a really great party and we all had a lot of fun.