Pirate Party Pt.4 - Activities

Before I mention anything else about this party I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Black Bird Studios! I never really understood why people have professional photographers take pictures of birthday parties and smaller occasions, but now I do. My husband's sweet cousin is trying to start her own photography biz and she said she would love to come take pics at the party for practice and experience. I was like HECK YA! It was so nice having someone there to do all the pictures while I could host and be with the guests and not have to worry about trying to get a picture here or there. Not only was it a big stress-reliever, but she did an amazing job! She got so many cute pictures of the kids and all the little details! AND there were SO MANY (that is why there blog posts are so long, there was just too many to choose from)! Anyway, thanks so much Jocelyn! You can check out her work here for your own event or family photos.

I had a lot of fun with this party and the games were one of the best parts. I mentioned before that when the kids arrived they got all dressed up with pirate accessories like bandannas, sashes and swords, tattoos, hooks, eye patches, mustaches, and were given a pirate name. I was really excited about the pirate names! I came up with some lists using previous pirate names, nouns, adjectives, and other various pirate words. Then I separated the words into three lists for the first, middle, and last name. I cut up each word and put all the first names in one box, second names in another, and last names (boy & girl names were separated) in another. They each drew one name from each box and then I put them together and wrote them down on little name tags I made from clipart I found online. Here are some of them... Other names that also came up with were Black Plank Dooley, Bilge Beard Helga, Peg Strap Roberta, and Shark Teeth Patty, but my personal favorites were Shifty Breath Harvey, Dead Dog Bertha, and Sea Legs Gertrude. Everyone had a good laugh at their names! I saved the lists so if you ever want to try this for your party, just let me know.
Anyway, after all the kids got dressed up they all started to sword fight. It was so cute watching them play! The next activity was Walk The Plank. The kids played this while poeple were eating and Jack was getting the pirate ship setup. I found some red buckets and a swimming pool at WalMart and had David drill some holes in the bottom of the buckets. Then got some rope and a board from the hardware store. Then tied each end of the board to the bottoms of the buckets with rope.
I painted "walk the plank" on the middle of the board. For the game it was placed over the swimming pool and the kids had to walk over it as fast as they could without falling in. They all had a blast, and by the end they were jumping in! I found this amazing Jack Sparrow character online here, and he was local! So I asked Mason if he wanted Jack to come, he was beside himself! Jack is his favorite, and with his excitement I couldn't refuse (insert wink).
BONUS: He also has a giant pirate ship that he can bring with him that the kids can play on. The ship had a ladder to climb up and a slide off. The ship also had little cannons that had smoke coming out. Here Jack is showing the kids how to properly steer a ship. What can I say, Mason loved it! This guy was great! Never broke character, his language and his mannerisms were spot on! He posed for pictures with all the kids with all those facial expressions. After the kids were all done with the ship, we played the last game called Cannonballs Away. I got some large refrigerator boxes from the hardware store. I turned them inside out and painted them to look like ships. I even let Mason name them, of course he went with Pirate of the Caribbean. I also found black water balloons at a party store. Poor David spent like an hour and a half filling up about 150 of them! The teams were divided boys against girls, and Jack explained the rules. They had to throw cannonballs to try on sink the other team's ship. The first team to sink the other ship won. And away we go! Ship going down... (Oh and do you see Captain Jack hiding behind the tree) And it's sunk! Victory to the girls! The whole game lasted about 5 minutes, but was so worth it.
We had a kids from ages 1 to 11 at the party, but there was a little something there for all of them to enjoy. And what can I say about Jack... he was truly fabulous! Everyone loved him, even all the adults! They all just raved about how great of a job he did! And he was all about the kids, he even sat right next to Mason when he was opening his presents and talked with him about each gift. Again, you can find him online here.
This is him giving his farewell speech about "how this is the day we will always remember as the day...."

Pirate Party Pt. 2 - Decorations

The decorations were one of the things I was most excited about because I had every table laid out detailed in my mind and I spent so much time making certain things. But there were two things working against me; time (the venue we had reserved fell through and we scrambled at the last minute to find somewhere) and wind. Yes, the wind decided that it wanted to join the party too.
The color palette I went with for the whole party was red, white, and black - classic pirate.
The first table was the dress up table... As the guests arrived, the kids got to get all dressed up as pirates. They each got a sash, sword, pirate bandanna, eye patch, hook, mustache (if wanted), tattoo, and were given a pirate name. Here is some more pictures of that table: Then there was the snack table. I was super excited about this, and will go into more detail with that on the next post. I didn't get a straight shot of the whole table but this will give you an idea of what is looked like. Then there was the beverage table, also not the best picture. I will go into more detail with this table on the next post about all the food. Then there was the kids table where they got to eat their lunches. I was super excited about this one. I made large sails and a flag to put on the table to make it feel like the kids were sitting at a pirate ship. Then I had a treasure chest at one end of the table with treasure spilling out and down the middle of the table, along with cannon balls and bottles with treasure maps inside. Each setting had a treasure map place matte that had activities on the other side, a red and white striped plate, and a lunch box with their meal inside. There was also a little cannon with cannon balls that I made sitting at the other end of the table. I was so sad that the wind kept knocking down the sails and flag despite our best efforts to weigh or tie them down. We ended up just taking them down, but I just loved them so much I had to take a picture of them anyway! And last there was the party favor table. Each kid got their own little treasure chest filled with a map, tattoos, toy compass, mini telescope, and some pirate gold in a pouch.
There were also some other random decorations that we threw out with the no time we had left, like this pirate birthday banner But I still have a box of decorations that I wasn't able to get put up, tons of "Beware of Pirates" streamers, a giant pirate skull and crossbones arch that the wind knocked down, pirate flags, and some balloons. ARGH! My OCBD was going crazy!!!

P.S. Most all of the dress up items and party favor boxes and toys were ordered from Oriental Trading or Birthday Express. The birthday banner and table signs were ordered from here.

Pirate Party Pt.1 - Invitations

This year my little boy wanted a Pirate party. I was SO excited! I have had ideas for this party for years, no exaggerating! So I have a TON of photos from this party! I figured the best way to show them would be to break them down. The first post I am doing is the invites, because I loved them so much! Here is a list of what you will need:

Jones soda bottles (all washed and labels peeled off)
medium size corks (I got them at Hobby Lobby)
sand (play sand or any other natural color)
thin rope or thinker twine
invitations
hot glue gun and sticks
funnel (to pour sand in bottle)
After all your bottles are cleaned out and completely dry, pour a bit of sand into the bottom of the bottle. You can do as much or little as you like, I did about a little less than an inch or so. Next roll up your invites super tight so they have room to fit in the mouth of the bottle and tie one end of the rope around it. I wanted to go with a treasure map look for my invites, and found these super adorable ones for sell on etsy here. Or there are lots of different ways you can make your own. Another way I did for my son's friend party was done by printing the party info onto a tan piece of cardstock in pirate lingo (like "Ahoy Matey" etc.) with some cute pirate font and burned the edges of the paper for a weathered look. Those also turned out pretty cute. Either way, you can't lose!

Anyway, after you tie your invitation squeeze it in the bottle and leave some of the rope hanging out of the top. Cork your bottle. Then wrap the remaining rope around the cork and hot glue it. This is so when your guests pull on the cork, the invitation will come out too, instead of having them try and tip the bottle upside down and pull it out with their fingers. Ta-da! You now have a super fun and easy invite that your guests will enjoy as it sets the mood for your big pirate adventure!