INVITATIONS: I wanted a message in a bottle invite. I used small glass bottles (again I used the ones from Cracker Barrel-their small syrup bottles) You can also use large glass bottles, but since I was doing so many, I chose to use the smaller ones. I took masking tape and ripped it into small 2 inch or so pieces and covered the entire bottle. I then took brown shoe polish and wiped it all over the tape. I printed “yer invited” onto a small treasure maps and mod-podged it onto the bottle.
I also used mod podge all over the entire bottle. I printed the invitation details onto the treasure map, rolled it up, and put it into the bottle. My husband dressed up as Captain Hook and delivered the invites to my son’s kindergarten class. He had the music, “YO HO YO HO, a pirates life for me,” playing on his iphone when he went into the classroom. The kids loved it!!
DECORATIONS:I bought plastic that looked like a ship from partypro.com. It was actually the barn one, but it worked perfect for our ship. My husband took a roll of wire fence that we had and wired it around to create a ship, with a point at out basketball hoop and another point at the fence, and we covered it in the plastic. I bought some “creepy cloth” from the $store and we hung it around to look like fish netting, and I had a fish netting from OTC that I had left over from our Spongebob Party. I bought these large foam fish at the thrift store and we had them hanging in the large fish net. I also bought a ship wheel at the party store and put it at the front of the ship. I bought 12 plastic pirate flags (US Toy) and hung them around the outside of the ship. I labeled each game section with signs. My husband strung white sheets in the middle of the ship to look like a large mast and we used my mom’s large pirate flag right in the middle. We had red and black balloons all around the entire ship. I printed 3 signs and took them to Staples office supply store to have them printed on 24” x 36” paper. One said the “Black Pearl’, the name of the ship, one said, “Pirate Cove” which was where the ship was docked, and the last sign said, “Welcome Aboard for Captain Aiden’s party” and was out front where the guests arrived. I also bought a pirate sign that said “Beware of pirates” that was out front. I had a stuffed parrot on the ship and a stuffed monkey hanging. The kids had to walk down the stairs to our back yard and at the bottom we had several ficus trees and it looked like the ship was docked. We played pirate music throughout the whole party that we had downloaded from Amazon.com.
COSTUMES: Once the kids arrive to the party, they have to get into their pirate costumes. They got to get a red or black bandanna for their head and a sash to tie around their waist. My mother-in-law made these. They got an eye patch, a black chain with a parrot charm on it, and a beaded necklace. The girls also got a pink earring and bangle bracelet.
TREASURE CHEST: Next the kids each get a treasure chest and we wrote their name on it with a black marker. I made this using a pattern my mom had. She had printed them on yellow paper. We spray glued the yellow patterned paper onto brown paper, because we wanted to have a “gold” inside, and be brown on the outside. (If I were to do this again though I would just print them onto the brown construction paper – it kept coming apart.) We cut them out and I hot glued them together. I added gold ribbon and a pirate sticker gem on each chest.
GAMES:
WALK PLANK - After each child was dressed as a pirate and had a treasure chest, we played games. The first game was walk the plank. We used one of our benches that we use for seating for our performing group. They are real sturdy for the kids to walk across. The kids each took turns “walking the plank” and trying to avoid falling off and being eaten by the large stuffed crocodile that was lying underneath.
CANNONBALL TOSS- We used my mom’s large inflatable pirate ship. It is quite large, large enough that 3 kids could sit in it. I had these colored soft play balls and we gave one "cannonball" to each child. My husband brought the ship in and I said,” Oh no, it is an enemy pirate ship- they are trying to steal our treasures and we need to defend it from the other pirates. The teams throw the balls at the ship and try to get their balls into the ship. If we get enough balls into we can sink their ship. This game can be played several times as kids love throwing the balls. I gave a prize to each child for playing. I had large rings for the girls and sticky wall walker men for the boys. The kids put their prizes into their treasure chests.
CROWS NEST – We split the group into 2 teams. We had a bowl of pretzels. 2 kids wore plastic hooks on one hand and 2 more kids were at the top of the balcony (the crows nest) with small pails attached to a long length of yarn and a bowl. The object was to scoop a pretzel with the hook, put it in the pail, and the kids on the deck pull the pail up over the balcony and put the pretzels in the bowl. Whichever team got all of their pretzels in their bowl up on the deck first won. We always give prizes to every child. The prizes were party stencil rulers for the boys and cute birthstone earrings for the girls. (The earrings were $1.36 w/free shipping for 6 pair from eBay)
While the kids were playing this game, we took the kids treasure boxes and put them onto a cookie sheet. My husband who dressed up as a pirate came down and STOLE the kid’s treasures. He made a big deal of it and the kids were shocked.
He “dropped” a note, and the kids were all excited and pointed to it. This started our treasure hunt.
TREASURE HUNT – (These clues were found on birthdaypartyideas.com)
1st CLUE to read:
Ahoy me hearties-Your "treasures" have been plundered. Just follow yer clues and the treasure chest ye will have won. Jack me monkey may have a clue. He's just hangin' round waitin' fer you.
(I had the next clue attached to a stuffed monkey we had hanging from the ships mast.)
2nd Clue:
To figure out where your next headin' There's somthin' ye have to assume. What should ye use to swab the poop deck. Is it a vacuum, a mop, or a broom?(The next clue was on a mop we had just hanging around in the ship area)
3rd Clue
Arrrr I be hungry-me stomach's a growlin'-Better catch me some grub or there'll be some howlin'(The next clue would be have to be CAUGHT as the kids went fishing like at a fish pond.)
My son, stood on the other side of the ship. We gave the kids a fishing pole and the kids threw the line over the ship. They got little bags of Swedish fish. The next clue was attached to the last kid’s package. (Could also use goldfish crackers)
4th Clue
Yo ho ho yer getting' closer Hurry before ye end in Davey's Locker Go find the cannon balls- Don't forget to pop them all.Earlier we had blown up black balloons and hidden one of the clues inside. My son dropped them off the balcony, and the kids squealed with delight, as they popped the balloons looking for the next clue.
5th Clue
All pirates abide by the code Alast we're sometimes too bold. We stole some gold - it might be cursed We better find every last piece or things'll get worse.We have a very large sand box and we had hidden jewels and gold in there. The kids loved finding all the jewels and we gave them little snack-size ziplocs to put them in. (I bought colored stones at the $store and little pebble rocks. I painted the rocks with metallic gold spray paint and they looked like gold pieces. ) I also printed a Treasure Map, and it was buried in there as well.
Treasure Map:
It had clues like” take 3 giants steps forward, turn to the right, jump forward 10 times, etc,” until the kids got to where they needed to be which was “Blackbeard’s Treasure Cave.” We took a small section under our deck and enclosed it in black plastic. Inside the “Cave” we had a gold throne, (from my sister’s princess party), gold plates and cups, colored gems, some of the gold rocks, gold coins, and beaded necklaces draped everywhere. (I got a large bag of beaded necklaces from the thrift store). We had a piñata treasure chest I there too. This is where my husband hid all the kids treasure boxes.
The kids went into the cave and retrieved their treasure boxes as well as more gems and gold from the floor.
PINATA-My husband hung up the piñata ad the kids took turns breaking it open.
CAKE & CUPCAKES- My mom made a pirate ship cake for the family to eat, and I made cupcakes for the kids. They also had pirate punch (Capri Suns.)
We then opened presents.
GOODY BAGS & SWORDS – As the kids left they got an inflatable pirate sword (I got these from US Toy) and a goody bag. I bought pirate goody bags at US Toy.com and filled it with: Blow-up squeaking lizards, compass, sticky foot, noise blower, pirate sucker, bouncy ball, candy bracelet, gum balls, pirate tattoo, pirate gummy teeth, and gold and silver gum coins. Most of the stuff I got at the $store. I also printed the Thank You card and put it inside the bag.
The party lasted 2 hours and the kids had sword fights while they waited for their parents.
The kids had a blast!
This was such a fun party to plan!
Thanks Mateys!
Momma
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