How to Have a Successful Pirate Party

Yesterday was Drew's birthday. He's the big S-I-X. You know what that means... you get to do more stuff by yourself, girls dig you more cause you're older now, you can stay up a little later and eat popcorn like your dad... ya know, big kid stuff. Six years old is that passage from baby-hood to big kid-hood. A whole bunch of new options open up to big six year olds!
We kicked off this milestone by having a pirate birthday party on Saturday. This was not only Drew's first "friend" birthday party, but the first one we did at home. For Louisa's parties we have always gone somewhere like bowling or Build-A-Bear or something like that. We invited Drew's whole class and had a total of about 15 kids come. The turnout was just the right size for our house and all the activities we had planned.
To have a successful pirate party, you must crew your ship with rough and rowdy looking pirates.... Arrhhh!

Give them pirate names by having them choose a color and a type of fish. For example, Louisa Blue Angel Fish, or Andrew Blue Shark, or Hunter Green Marlin.

Don't forget about the ocean to sail your ship on. To make your ocean you need water bottles filled halfway with water. Put one or two drops of blue food coloring, depending on how "deep" your ocean is. Add the seashells, boats, fish and other sea creatures, as well as some "sand" (glitter). Then fill the rest of the bottle with baby oil, mateys. Why? Because that's the air above the water, of course! You should probably glue the bottle cap back on, lest ye be swabbing the deck when it all spills out.

When you feed your rowdy crew, there's a certain menu you must follow:
Every pirate has to have Rum! (fruit punch)
And then give them each a cup of sand with some fish that washed ashore. (applesauce with Goldfish crackers)
Pirates need their own ships to set sail on the sea. (hot dog in a bun, and you can add a paper sail to it if you wish to make it look more like a ship)
For desset, don't forget the Treasure Chest full of jewels and gold!
Husband actually made the cake and it looked a tad different than this, but his cake was awesome and he really impressed all the moms that stayed to hang out. And I got to be proud that my husband is not only handsome, but creative, too! We used Rolos for "gold" and M&M's for "jewels". I could not find any candy necklaces anywhere. I checked 4 different grocery stores and discount stores and not one had candy necklaces. Our cake still looked great, though.
For games we played "Pin the EyePatch on the Pirate". For this game, I would strongly suggest using a bandana blindfold because the cheap blindfold that came with the game was too easy to cheat with. The kids could still see through the bottom of it and they all "won"!
We also played "Musical Islands". Husband cut a whole bunch of "islands" out of brown paper and then drew palm trees and treasure maps on them. We laid them on the ground and the kids walked around them to the melodic sounds of pirate music. The rest of the game is played like musical chairs. I bought this "Pirates of the Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Songs" CD for the party, and it has become Drew's favorite. He listens to it every night at bed time.



Drew has always wanted a pinata at a birthday party, so we finally got one. This one was a treasure chest and we filled it with gold coins, tattoos, and candy. Just a note, if you put gold coins in a pinata, make sure they are chocolate ones. Kids aren't as excited about plastic ones as you might think! One kid actually started to eat it. I had to pull it away from him to get him to stop gnawing on it.

I gave the kids lots of time to run around the backyard and play with Drew's toys. Too much structure with kindergarteners, and you lose them.
The moms that stayed all chatted and had a good time. Although husband felt out of place and awkward being the only man.

A good time was had by all, and the kids went away with some really good "loot"! We were excited when we found this "treasure box" on OrientalTrading.com, where we ordered most of our party supplies from. Everything was included and it saved us a lot of money rather than buying it all separately.

So now my baby is six (sniff, sniff) and this mama has to live with the fact that he's growing up and there's not much I can do about it. He's already almost as tall as Louisa is and he's definitely just as smart. I love that he's becoming such a big kid, but I miss all the cute little things he used to do.

Happy Birthday, Drew Bear! (at least I'm the only one who still gets to call him that!)