Parties from the Past: Pirate Party

For my son's 6th birthday he was at the height of his pirate phase. When it was time to pick a theme for his birthday it was no surprise that it was a pirate themed birthday he chose. My first step as usual was to create the invitation. I had a lot of fun finding the wording and changing it to fit our party and activities.

I will admit that my cake didn't turn out exactly how I planned. The cake was just too moist to carve the treasure chest. Luckily candy can hide a multitude of mistake's., and still tastes great.

The morning of the party my two swashbuckling pirates got all dressed up and posed with the decorations for grandma.

 

Everything was set up for the pirate invasion. The table in the middle of the yard is where lunch would be served. It also doubled as a tattoo shop for our pirate guests.

 

Once everyone arrived it was time for the first activity.   The search for gold coins that the pirates lost on the beach.  Even the littlest guest was able to participate in this game.

 

Then it was time to walk the plank.  We set up a balance beam over a blue tablecloth so that the kids had to walk over the water without falling in.  It is much harder than it looks when you have an eye patch on!

 

Then they needed to swab the deck.  We purchased cheap string mops at the dollar store and painted Styrofoam balls black to look like cannon balls.  We divided all the pirates into two teams and had relay races.

Then our Captain was delivered a special message from Grandpa the Pirate.  His treasure had been taken and hidden!  They unrolled the map and began their treasure hunt.

 

 

After their treasure had been found (and a mess of gold foil littered the beach) it was time for the piñata.  I am not sure where this HUGE wooden stick came from that the birthday pirate used, but it was quickly swapped out for a regular bat for the rest of the pirates.

 

The pirates then sat down for some lunch and cake before we opened presents and said goodbye.  All the kids went hope with their treasure bags full of gold coins, pirate bandanas, eye patches, tatoos and LOTS of candy!

Parties from the Past: Rocker Girl

For her 5th birthday our little Princess decided it was time to rock out, so her 5th birthday was a Rocker Girl party. We took a 1950’s rock n’ roll color scheme of pink, black and white and added some Hannah Montana purple and the empty room turned into a rockin party place. Amber made the custom rock themed invitation

We set the table and added the music notes and star sunglasses. Amber made the adorable pink guitar cake from a DIY article in Family Fun.

Once again made a banner and used Dollar Store tablecloths to transform the corner into a stage. The walls didn’t match our decor so we hung the black plastic tablecloths so it really gave the atmosphere of a stage.

Amber bought a guitar piñata and the kids had a blast trying to break it open.

The craft that we made with the kids were microphones. We used half circles of Styrofoam from the Dollar Store and the kids wrapped them in aluminum foil. Grandpa cut sections of PVC pipe and painted them black before the party. Then an adult helped hot glue the 2 pieces together.

Then we played music and the kids all rocked out on stage wearing their star glasses.

Our final game before opening presents was music chairs, by request of the birthday girl. The party was a blast and the kids all had a rocking good time.