It Began With a Kiss: Ahoy there Maties!

Okay, so next up after Riley's party was Madison's 6th birthday. With her wanting to invite her school friends & all the family we have, add in our small house, I decided the only way we could do this is if we did 2 parties, one for her friends and one for family. I figured if I was doing 2, I might as well just do them both the same day. I did the kids one @ noon & the family one was a dinner starting at 5.

She decided she wanted a Pirate birthday party. Wow, this was work, but I think it turned out real well & was a lot of fun. I am bummed though, with being so busy, I didn't get many good pictures of the party & decorations.

First we handed out the invites to her classmates. They were message in a bottle invites. I printed the wording up on regular computer paper, dipped them in coffee, then set them in a low temp oven to dry. It gave them a nice aged look. We reused water bottles we collected from family members. Put a new label on them that said "Pirate So&So" "Open if ye dare" and a skull & crossbones underneath. The label was also aged. I then rolled the invites up, tied them with a string & had the rest of the string hang out of the bottle. I figured this would make it easier to get the invites out of the bottle.

For decorations: Michael made a "pirate ship" out of plywood for the front of the house & we had a "plank" for the kids to walk up to the front door. We also concocted a sail for the ship, and one for inside the house, using bamboo that we cut down from the yard as the mast, and neutral sheets for the sail itself. Oh, we also had a repetitive playing of Pirates of the Caribbean "Yo ho ho A Pirates Life for me" at the front of the house, so the kids heard it as they came up.

Inside we had two pirates on the walls, fishing nets with parrots, pirate pennants, swords, money bags & other loot along with previous said sail, which was up against the wall behind our couch.

Upon coming in, the kiddo's received a pirate hat, that Tessa & Katelyn helped me make and red sashes, to help them get into the swashbuckling mood.

I read them a story "The Night Pirates" which was really cute & fit well since it had girl pirates in it. Then we moved on to pirate bingo. I used pictures of pirate things so that all the kids could play easily. They used gold plastic coins to mark their papers (which they kept). Next up was Toss the Fish (think Hot Potato)and Pin the Parrot on the Pirate (thanks Katelyn!).

Some where in between the games the pirates got their grub: corn dog swords, ocean blue jello, gold fish crackers, fresh fruit & veggies.

After Madison blew out her candle & the kids had consumed their cupcakes we began the treasure hunt. The kids had clues that led them from place to place with the idea that on the back of each clue was a letter, that was to spell out the location of the treasure, which was TABLE. The treasure chest with the goody bags inside was hidden under the food table. Unfortunately, my planning went poorly here. First off, the kids didn't even need to put the clue letters together, they had figured it out. But, I also thought that they would find the treasure chest & pull it out from under the table before trying to open it. NOPE. Half the nearly 20 kids that were here, dove under the table all scrambling to try & get into it. Madison for one, bumped her head on the bottom of the table, then whacked her chin on the top of the chest. So after the melee subsided, we were able to hand out the goody boxes in a somewhat organized manner. But hey, what pirate party is complete with out a pirate brawl?

While the kids went through their loot, Madison began opening presents & shortly there after the pirate ship docked & the little mini pirates headed home.

You know what that means....Mommy & Daddy rested for about 1 hour, before cleaning up & getting ready to entertain again for her family party. This time we didn't have to worry about any games and dinner was already prepped the night before. I had a yummy lasagna I just had to throw in the oven, Salad and french bread, along with the left over fruit & veggies from the kid party that I just had to replate.

It was a very long & exhausting day, but I think it turned out great! Although, I have suggested to the little swashbuckler, maybe next year a few friends & heading to Happy Frog on a Friday afternoon! But really, who am I kidding, I love throwing her parties!

Prep work, putting together the goody boxes

The CAKE - Katelyn helped me tremendously putting this together (along with Tessa). Unfortunately, after taking this picture, I realized the right side was sagging & I did fix that, but forgot to take a picture after