Pirate Party

For Jacob's fourth birthday party we decided to do a Pirate theme. He loves to pretend to be a pirate and he and Colin loved playing pirates all the time before he moved - we've missed our pirate play.

I started with the invitations being a message in a bottle. I got the idea & the paper supplies from Pebbles in my Pocket. I used "piratey" wording on the invite and then burned the edge of the paper & rolled it and put it in their bottles (we had to abandon our SIGG's and use little plastic bottles for a while - which I felt mildly guilty about.) I got the corks in a bag from Michael's and used them to stopper the bottles. The only thing that didn't work out was that it made them a little tricky to get out!

Once everyone arrived they had to become a pirate. The had eye patches and sashes. I also had eyeliner pencils to draw on beards & mustaches - but a few kids didn't want them, and it was kind of melted (in the warm sun) so I had Em run it into the fridge, and by the time it had cooled we were onto other things ... A big thanks to my Mum who bought 5 yards of pirate fabric and mailed it to me to make sashes for each kid. (No great fabric stores around here!)

To make the sashes I cut 10" strips the width of the fabric. Then I used 1 1/2 strips sewed together and folded in half with a 45 degree angle cut at each end & turned back the right side out. They looked cute all being pirates together!

I explained no pirate worth his salt is without a ship - so next we made little wooden boats that they painted. They all really seemed to like this.

Of course, once we were pirates with ships we had to search for the treasure ...
Rick made the clue's and did a good job. They were -

#1 Start in the backyard where the sea flows from Captain Jake's house. (the hose)
#2 Find Captain Jake's "land ship" and the clue will be on the front seat (the car)
#3 Take a nap on the deck and find the clue under the pillow (under the pillow on our bench)
#4 Look through the telescope from the look-out point. (the telescope in our swing set)
There was a treasure chest there filled with treasure (gold chocolate coins, dress-up rings, plastic pirate doubloons and play necklaces, etc)

Once we had our treasure we had to bury it! So, we played "X Marks the Spot". Each kid had a treasure chest sticker with their name on it. We blindfolded them & then they had to see who got nearest to the X. An extra sash made a great blindfold!

Once our treasure was buried and we were sailing in open sea again we played "walk the plank." I was too busy running this game to get a picture - but this is how we played it. I got a big blue tarp (from IKEA, but I've had it for years) and put it on the ground. The kids all stood around it. When I said "sea" they had to jump into the water (the blue tarp) "land" they had to jump off, and "air" they just had to jump up where they were standing. If you jumped wrong, you were out and had to walk the plank. I just got a big plank of wood from Home Depot & as they walked across it we chanted "Walk the Plank, Walk the Plank" - then everyone got a prize at the end.

Then we get to the game I was disappointed in .... I had planned to have them be "attacked" by cannons - which would be bubbles. I was going to make each of the kids a sword to pop the bubbles with to "fend off" the attack.

I didn't want it to be dangerous, but they swords would have to withstand getting wet from the bubbles popping, so planned on making swords out of foam core. I bought the foam core & had all the swords traced onto it. That morning I was trying to cut them out & paint them and it just wasn't working. I was using an exacto knife on the foam core, and it just tended to be too thick for a nice even cut. Since it was curved, it made it hard to trace the same line from the other side. They were just crumbling & not cutting out properly. It was the day of the party & I was frustrated that it wasn't working, and upset with myself for not having done it sooner to be able to come up with an alternative!

I abandoned the idea of swords, and they just popped the "Cannons" with their fingers. The kids seemed happy enough & didn't mind - but I knew it could have been better ... (bek was the attacking "pirate black-bek.")

Then we ate. The whole party color theme was red, black & white - so we stuck with that.

Since it was around dinner time, I ordered pizza, but also tried to come up with some "piratey" food. I felt kind of sick about the junkiness of the food - but it was a party, and I was hoping that it was infrequent enough not to do any real damage.

I made little card stock signs and hot-glued them to craft sticks, so they would know what each thing was. The drink one I printed on sticker paper so it would stick to the jug.

Blue jello cups with Swedish fish on top for "fish in the sea." You have to top it with the Swedish fish just before serving, and can't put them in the jello, or they turn to yuck mush (I've tried it before for a Jonah & The Whale family home evening lesson.)

This was simple - chicken nuggets as their gold.

This one was a no brainer! I think most kids like pirates booty.

The catch of the day was goldfish crackers.

I couldn't decide what to do for drinks. I ran my ideas past Jacob -
"Hey Jake, how about blue drink, and we can call it salty sea water." That got shot down.
"How about green juice and we can call it seaweed juice" No way!
"How about if I get red drink and we call it shark's blood?" OH YEAH!

So, we bought a dozen bottles of red Gatorade and it became sharks blood. I did well to ask his advice - every kid there LOVED the sharks blood, and kept asking for "More sharks blood please." It was the hit of the food table.

1st mate cupcakes.

The ties on the hats are made from red fondant hearts that were painstakingly made the night before by my sweet husband. The rest was me with a lots of frosting & a piping bag!

Jane sure thought they were yummy.

I had sliced oranges (to prevent scurvy) inside & forgot to put them out - they were in the fridge the whole time. The one healthy thing. Ugh!

Then the birthday cake. I really had wanted to do a shark for him, but had been really sick for about 2 weeks right before this, and was behind on my party plans. I just didn't feel up to an elaborate 3-D shark. I'm hoping he'll still love sharks next year & I can make one for him then.

I went with a simple pirate hat. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out - but if I make one again will use a template 1st for the skull & crossbones & not try to free-hand it right onto the cake. (I think my skull looks a little alien-esqu.)

What do pirates wish for?

Then the kids bounced on our bounce-house until their parents arrived. In the take home bags they took their loot from the treasure hunt, and the prizes they had won in the games. They got to keep their sashes and I also added other pirate prizes -

I bought individual tubs of black play-doh. I peeled off the labels and made new one's by printing onto sticker paper. It said "Pirate Putty - for fixing leaky boats."

I also added (mostly from oriental trading co.) ....

bendable pirate figures - don't buy these, they look way better online than they are in real life.

skull & cross-bones pencils,

skull lollipops,

stickers,

pirate sweet creams,

and each child got a flag (we had a bunch of these around the backyard as decorations too.)

And a pirate tatoo.
All of it, except their flag and loot from the treasure hunt was inside these little bags.

And that was that!
It was a lot of fun to plan, and a fun day for Jacob. I only have one son, so am enjoying all the boyish things that he likes. I only wish I hadn't been so sick leading up to this so I could have done a few of the other things I had wanted. Jacob had a really great day - that's what it's really all about.

After his bath he got to open lots of very nice present from his friends - in his pirate pj's of course!
I love you my little matey!