A Pirate's Life For Us!

Today was Sophie's last day as a five year old.  Normally, I do not get sad or very nostalgic about the girls getting older.  This time though, I am feeling a little tug at my heart.  Six still seems like too many fingers for Sophie.  Rather than shed tears, I decided we needed to say goodbye to five in style.
Here is the list of the things we did today, you can decide if we were successful:  took an hour and a half walk on the walkways along the wetlands and saw an alligator, among other things, visited a sea turtle hospital and rescue center, read stories with Grandpa and Daddy, watched a crazy pirate hold and swallow fire (and make disgusting comments about bodily functions), rode on a pirate ship where we (or the more brave among us) fought with swords and pistols, marched in a parade, danced, were tattooed, mustached and uni-browed, spotted dolphins, found treasure and became true pirates.  After all of that, we ate seafood, came home and collapsed.  It's a good thing we typically spend a quiet New Year's Eve at home!

Here, just a few of the many pics of our pirate ship adventure:

The birthday girl in a very special birthday hat

 scaliwag doing a bit of swabbing

 Dos dolphins!

Madeleine's tat

me and C, still the cutest couple around

I have pictures to tell the story of the whole fun day but they take so long to upload that it will have to wait.  I need my beauty rest before we get up before the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise for last time in 2011....

ARGH Mates!

My last post coming very soon.....or not at all.