Alert! Alert! Teenager On Board!

By Kathy

It is official!! We now have a teenager on board! It is hard to believe our baby girl is 13. 

 

Baby Emma - 13 years ago

It has been a fun filled weekend of celebrating here on SandStar. This is our first boat birthday so we had to figure a few things out about celebrating on water. The ongoing theme that we have run into while cruising is to “KEEP IT SIMPLE” and that worked out great for celebrating Emma’s birthday this weekend. 

The birthday celebration actually started a week early when the Feeley Family came to see us. Elena made Emma a beautiful cake and we sang “Happy Birthday” while they were on board.  They were also able to secretly bring some gifts that we ordered for the birthday girl and she was very surprised and excited to get some packages from her friends. 

Elena working hard on the cake.

Birthday celebration with the Feeleys

The population in George Town changes quite often especially if the weather is good. You tend to make friends very fast because they may only be here for a few days. The kids also play with any kids at any age. We were very lucky to have three other kid boats in our anchorage last week with a total of nine kids ages 7-13 (s/v SAVA, s/v Gato Rison and s/v Mariposa). Some had plans to leave on Saturday so we had a Kid Boat Birthday Party on Friday afternoon. How does a kid boat birthday party work?? 

The Invitation: You ask the parents the night before to send their kids over after lunch the next day. 

Arrival: Some arrive on their own in their kayaks or paddleboards and others are dropped off in via dinghy. 

Activities: jumping off the boat, swinging from the boom swing. Dan also came up with a new activity by the end of party – the kiddie launcher! It was a hit. 

Food: Two big bowls of popcorn, a cake and a package of chewy Chips Ahoy cookies. 

Birthday Party Fun 

The cake. We were lucky to find a box of cake mix, purple frosting and a bag of skittles.

The cake disappeared in seconds

Snack time -  Yummy popcorn

 

The girls chatting away unaware of the Swingin' Sam

For the grand finale! The Kiddie Launcher! (this is the first time we are trying to upload a video so I hope works out)

The kids had a blast and we were all exhausted the next day!

On April 8^th(Emma’s official birthday), we had a great family day with a big breakfast and some fun cliff jumping, swimming with dolphins and hanging out at the beach. 

Two items on the top of birthday wish list - chocolate milk and coffee creamer

Cliff jumping on your birthday

On our way to the cliffs we found a family of dolphins and the Emma was able to get pretty close with her snorkel

We are so proud of our little girl teenager and are thankful for each day we get to spend with her.