What do I do my son's 8th birthday?

My youngest son will be 8 on October 31st. He’s always hated his birthday for many reasons.

1. It’s on Halloween, so every 7th year he gets to here about how horrible the night is.

2. He’s tired of being called a “devil baby” by ignorant Christian family members. (I call him pumpkin baby. He always blushes)

3. No one else acknowledges his birthday. We tried having parties, but that just didn’t work out. Everyone would show up to his brothers birthday for cake and ice cream (family only parties and even the one I invited friends) and he would think that is how it was going to be for him. Well, his birthday would come around and suddenly everyone had reasons they couldn’t go. So he really feels the favoritism. I don’t blame him either. This happened on the years we had his party before or after his birthday.

4. The three years I did do birthday parties, everyone came to his brothers parties in July and not his. Every one brought his brother presents, but not him. I mean, the people in our life are making it obvious they like his brother better. And frankly it is pissing me off.

So last year, I decided I wasn’t dealing with it. No one had a party (I don’t like them anyway) and we were doing it like we did before. Family, only us, and doing something with them.

His older brothers birthday wasn’t the greatest (comparitively) but he didn’t really care. My youngest son had a birthday that was WAY cool though.

We drove across country and at my friends house, Granny’s house, Cousin Heyhey’s house, Great Grandma’s house, Grandpa’s house, AND the grand canyon, he got a birthday cake. (the kid hit the birthday cake jack pot! last year) Then once in CA, he got to go to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry farm, sailing, toured an aircraft carrier, and SO much more.

So he came up to me the other day with this big smile and said “What are we doing for my birthday?” O.M.G.! How the hell do I top that?

I told him that I’d think about it and he said he wants to spend his birthday at sea. So we plan to sail out, drop anchor and have a “party” at sea. Which is going to be so cool!

But once out there, what do we do. We do small cakes (we’re all 3 diabetic) but beyond that, I need fun things to do out at sea, on a sailboat, with kids.

We are carving pumpkins before we move and spending time doing fun stuff. But what do we do while sailing?