Write My Life

For Jackie’s 13th birthday party, we kidnapped her friends.

With a “pirate” theme in mind, Jackie selected 9 friends to kidnap. We arranged the time and pick-ups with their parents ahead of time. We started at one house, getting our first kidnap victim, then moved to the next house.

When we had about 4 girls, it got very fun as the girls would decend on the next house and kidnap the girl all together. All the girls were surprised but some girls were so surprised, it was quite comical. There was a lot of “What are you doing here?” as they looked their friends holding swords at them.

We drove them to our destination – a friend’s beach house south of Santa Cruz. The girls dressed for the beach. Due to the overcast day, they dressed in layers with a swimsuit underneath their sweatshirts and shorts. At the house Captain Jackie inspected her new crew.

She announced her treasure map was missing so we had to inspect the girls’ bags. She found the map among her crew. With map in hand, they followed the path to the beach. On the beach, they discovered the treasure chest. Inside the treasure chest were gold chocolate coins and a snack bag for each of the girls. They were apparently hungry cause they all yelled, “Food! Yes!”

Next, they played at the beach.

Some played in the waves, some participated in sword fighting and a few brave souls body surfed.

Afterwards, we headed back to the beach house. After changing clothes, the girls gathered around the table where Jackie opened her presents. With a “kidnapping” theme Jackie wasn’t sure if she would get an presents, but their parents had bought presents and hidden them in the girls bags. Each girl would say, “Open my present. I want to know what I got you!” The mother’s knew Jackie well enough to get her things like journals, bookstore gift cards and a reading light.

Dinner followed with pizza, watermelon, apples and Jackie’s requested lemon cheesecake.