For Kyle's 5th Birthday we decided to have a Pirate Party. Everywhere I looked I was inspired with new ideas for it. I didn't go overboard with this party in terms of decoration. My main focus was activities. This was the first time we were having a party that was comprised mostly of Kyle's own friends. (still, we somehow managed to have more adults than kids...) Our main activity, and the one Kyle was most looking forward to, was a Treasure Hunt. I so badly wanted to do this outside, and was determined to do so. After all, in upstate New York, by the end of April we can usually expect at least decent weather, if not lovely weather. The weekend of his party was forecasted to be chilly, but dry. The night before his party, I decided that yes, we would do the hunt outside regardless of weather. I spent 2 hours coming up with clues and making treasure maps-everything looking authentic-of course. Much to my dismay, I woke up to rain, and we had to move everything indoors. But, as they say, the show must go on. Lucky for me, the kids were still thrilled with the treasure hunt. At each stop the children had to perform a "pirate" task in order to earn their pirate gear. The change from outdoors to in made these tasks a bit challenging-but here they are!
Stop number 1: Rescue a parrot from a cage. They had to open up the cage, each rescue one parrot (we used various bird beanie babies for this), and then toss the bird into a bucket, which was "safe". Once they'd done this, they earned a pirate bandanna, which I made using pirate print fabric.
Stop number 2: Swim through Mermaid Tunnel. We have a light blue tunnel, so I put some of our mermaid friends around it, and had them "swim" through on their tummys. Once they completed that, they earned an important piece to their pirate wardrobe-their eye patch!
Stop number 3: Walk the plank! This was fun, and really easy. It was the one game I was able to bring inside that I had planned for outside. I had purchased a piece of scrap wood from our hardware store for $1, and painted "Walk the Plank" on it. Once they did that, they were given their final clue to go search for the sword which was needed for:
The Treasure Chest Pinata!!
We even had a pirate to guard the treasure! The kids each had a turn with the (plastic) sword to try and break into that treasure chest. I even took a whack at it, with no luck! It was a lot of work, but the kids loved it! The treasure chest was filled with gold coins, golden jewels, stickers, ring pops, bracelets and various candy all wrapped in gold. The kids dug right in, just like real pirates!!
For food for the party, I made "grub bags" for each of the kids. In each bag, there was a sunbutter and jelly sandwich (safe for our friend with a peanut allergy), a pouch of apple slices, a pouch of goldfish, and a juicebox. For the table I made a mast and sail, and each spot had a pirate activity placemat.
Even though I hit a few road blocks while setting up for this party, everything went off without a hitch. Kyle loved having all his friends there, and they all had a great time!
Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet little Pirate! Wow, how time flies!
-Lindsay
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