Ahoy Matey, It's a Pirate Birthday

It has been pointed out that I have not given equal time for boy’s birthday parties. For that I apologize. Without further ado, I present a boy’s party.

What boy doesn’t a some time or another enjoy being a pirate?

Invitation: Sadly I couldn't upload the invitation I sent out. I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is. What you are seeing is the thank you note that we used. If you would like to see the invitation, please look at it on my website at http://www.invitetheparty.com/. As with most of the invitations I design for my kids, they end up on my website.

Crafts: I always like the kids to decorate their own goodie bags. I give them plain white bags from the craft store and then put out lots of markers and stickers. They can decorate any way they think a pirate theme should be.

We decorated blank bandannas but Oriental Trading now has lots of fun pirate crafts to choose from.

Games: The kids always love a treasure hunt. I end up doing them at every party because it is always requested. Having a treasure hunt helps you in two ways

1) You don’t have to assemble goody bags before hand
2) It takes up a lot of party time for the treasure hunt.

Depending on the age of the child, there are different ways to give clues to find a treasure box.

1) For younger kids, I have taken pictures of the location of the treasure boxes. That way they try to figure out the location from the picture.
2) I’ve given clues that would say, hop 10 times or take 15 steps to the left. It helps with the party fun to be able to jump, hop or crawl.
3) Another fun one is to rip up the clues and put them in different balloons. They have to pop the balloons and then all the kids get together in order to put the clues together.

The key is the make it interesting for your age group. I usually put out about six treasure boxes with goodies or candy in them.

Another game is the piñata. My son’s birthday is in March and I still send them outside for the Piñata.

Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate.

You can also put tattoo on the kids. What’s a pirate without a tattoo?

Paper Goods: There are so many different kinds of paper goods for a pirate party that it really is up to you.

Cake: I made the cake following Family Fun’s Pirate Cake recipe. They even have a video how-to so definitely check it out. http://www.familyfun.com/

I certainly had fun doing this birthday. There are so many ways to go with this, I just hope this helps you get your creative juices flowing. If you have any questions, let me know.

Elizabeth