For the twins’ 4th birthday they chose a
pirate theme for their party. I was pleasantly surprised at all the inexpensive
and creative ideas I both came up with and found online, as well as adorable
low cost decorations!
When the girls firmly decided on the pirate theme I
jumped on Etsy.com to see what I could find that would fit their criteria of “pirate”,
“girly”, “not scary”, and most importantly, “PINK”. I was pleased as punch when
I came across “Party
So Perfect” as they had exactly what we were looking for and her
mini-packages were perfectly priced! The transaction was smooth and seamless
and I’d highly recommend her for all your party printable needs :o)
After I secured a visual of the theme via the printables,
I began to scour the internet for pirate party ideas in general. I hit the
jackpot when I found The
Notable Nest! This mom blog was chock full of great ideas so all I had to
do was put a girly spin on things :o)
Here is the precious invitation:
I found a blank pink foam sign at the Dollar Tree and
personalized it to welcome our mates:
The food was prepared and set out when our guests arrived
and consisted of:
Cannon Balls (aka meatballs), Parrot Wings (aka hot
wings), Peg Legs (aka lil smokies), Polly’s Crackers (aka Ritz crackers), Shark
Bait (aka Goldfish crackers), and chips and dip (which I failed at coming up with
a clever name for).
The table was strewn with Dollar Tree beads, plastic gold
coins, and left over trinkets from the goody bags.
The drinks were in a cooler close by with a sticker above
them that said, “Drink up me hearties, yo ho!”
After everyone had their tummies full, I gathered the children
in the kitchen to start the adventures of the day!
We began by drawing new “pirate”
names out of a crumpled paper sack that I had written “Pick ye pirate name” on.
Along with the name came a number, and this is the order we used (or tried to
at least) for the other games. Our pirate names included (you put your real name
in the blank): Land Lubber _____, Red Beard _____, Captain _____, Deck Swabber _____,
Salty Dog _____, Boney ______ Maroney, Gold Tooth _____, Peg Leg _____, and our
only diaper wearer was Poopdeck _____ :o) We ALL got a kick out the pirate
names! LOL
After receiving their new names, the crew got “Pirate
Loot” bags filled with eye patches, tattoos, a telescope, and an inflatable
sword-you know, all the pirate adventure “must haves” (I totally PLANNED on
doing bandanas too, but waited too long and it just slipped my mind-I would’ve
just purchased a yard or two of skull and cross bone material and cut it in
squares).
Now that the gang had appropriate pirate names and garb
(which some came decked in to start with) we played our first game-Shark
Infested Waters. I simply filled one side of the sink with water and scattered “treasure”
(small random sea life toys and mermaids all found at the Dollar Tree) about
and tossed in a larger shark to “guard” it. I swirled the water around and the
kids took turns reaching in to retrieve treasure while trying to avoid getting “bitten”
by the shark. This was surprisingly enough a HUGE hit!
After everyone had defeated the shark and scored some
treasure, I gave them a homemade treasure map to follow!
The big kids were the
ring leaders here and eventually they DID find more treasure, but this time it
was “buried”. I filled a plastic shoe box with uncooked rice and hid shells and
dismembered yard sale jewelry underneath it. They all had a blast “digging” and
the rice stayed outside and didn’t stick to their skin or clothes the way sand
would.
Now that they had plenty of treasure, we came back inside
and they placed the loot in “oceans in a jar” that I had made up the night
before. It’s simply a little vegetable oil and colored water! I would’ve done
bottles, but the toys were too big to fit and I had these small jars handy, so
I went with what I had.
With activities and crafts complete we moved on to cake
and presents, the kids free played for a bit, and then our guests started to
file out.
Whew! That was FUN!!!!
Happy 4th birrrrrrrthday to my sweet girls!
