Birthday party posts are my fave. And I also dread them. Because I like to give every detail of the party. (I know, you’re shocked by that statement). I want to tell you about each and every decoration, game and food. But I realize that can make for some dull blogging. So, instead, I’ll try (TRY) to put everything into one post. Or maybe I’ll do two. Hmmm….
Let’s just do the TOP TEN THINGS I LOVED ABOUT ASA’S PIRATE PARTY (AS OF RIGHT NOW):
1. The Food!
I couldn’t think of any good pirate-y food at first. Everything I found online was all creepy and Halloween-ish. Finally I settled on an around-the-world theme. Because pirates sail the seven seas and all that? Get it? So, we had:
Pirates of the Caribbean Black Bean Mango Salsa (hat tip to Tricia and Kraft Foods)
Captain Hook’s Hummus (Sabra brand with pita)
Oranges for scurvy (thanks to Kristen for the idea!)
In addition we had some eggrolls (which I didn’t get a picture of but they were from Target and every single one got eaten!) and goldfish crackers in all shapes and sizes!
2. The Desserts!
I made cannonballs. I got the idea from Becky’s friend who did meatballs=cannonballs at her son’s pirate party. But instead of meat, I did chocolate Rice Krispies treats COVERED in chocolate! Can I just say one word? HOLY YUM. That was 2, but seriously, they were good.
Even after a skype-tutorial by Staci and a video tutorial by Bakerella, I couldn’t really dip the cannonballs in chocolate and make them look good. So, my husband had the bright idea of painting the chocolate on. And that’s what we did. It worked wonders!
I also made these adorable Captain Jack Sparrow Tricorne Hats from Diamonds for Dessert. Wait, I take that back. I tried to make them. They turned out horrendous. It wasn’t recipe error, at all. It was all user error. *sigh* One day I’ll be able to follow a recipe.
Of course, I had to throw a few M&M’s in there, and some orange slices for more scurvy fun.
3. The Cake!
My bff, Staci comes to the rescue again! She has made all my kids’ cakes at all their parties and she never ever fails to disappoint! This year I asked her if she could do a pirate ship cake. And well, what do you think of this?!
4. The Decor
I honestly didn’t want any skulls at the party. Well, this was totally impractical because every single solitary pirate-y thing has a skull on it. But I did the best I could and think I kept the frightening gore to a minimum. Let’s see…
I bought three pirate flags
My dad donated his pirate sword, his Pirates of the Caribbean snow globe and other miscellaneous pirate-y stuff. He collects swords and other scary stuff.
I also loved my food signs. I just grabbed those pictures off of The Grapics Fairy. And the font is called RAGE.
5. The Costumes
I love when people dress to go with my theme. Daddy had on a skull shirt, Mama wore her Tinkerbell shirt (Captain Hook?), one of my friends’ son wore an Aaarrrgghhhh! shirt and matching pirate pants. Becky’s daughter and friend came dressed in full pirate girl regalia. I made an awesome tattoo shirt with Asa’s name on it. Lydia wore her pink pirate costume (courtesy of Papa):
And my brother. Well, he wore this:
6. The Games.
I wanted to do a scavenger hunt. But I knew I’d have kids from ages 2-10. So, I had to make it a little less structured and more at-your-own-pace. So, I set up (rather, my mom and Lydia set up) 5 stations in the backyard. Each station had a sign with instructions and a spinner.
The kids spun the spinner (is that redundant?) and whichever pirate stamp it landed on is which station they had to go to. I stamped each sign with the same stamp as the spinner. I’m not sure if it worked exactly right, but it was the best I could come up with!
(I got the spinners at a school supply store for like $2 and the stamp set at Michael’s–it even came with paint!)
The stations were as pirate-y as I could make them:
Walk the Plank: they had to uhm…walk the plank
Buried Treasure: a baby pool full of sand, gold coins and necklaces
Pegleg Hop: an obstacle course of hula hoops, buckets and paintsticks—all to be completed on one foot
Swab the Deck: use a mop to push a ball into a bucket
Get Yer Own Pirate Name:
{Do you understand how much I wanted you to see this station? I am subjecting myself to letting you see this picture of me!!}
This was my favorite! I stole the idea from a Western Day I went to at the Center for Puppetry Arts. I got 3 boxes, painted them and cut a hole in top. (Again, when I say *I*, I really mean my mom and Lydia did this. I was just the puppet master.) Then I came up with 3 groups of names–a new first, middle and last pirate name. The kids picked a name out of each box and I wrote their new name on their pirate ship name tag. (Which were meticulously put together by Lydia—all by herself!)
Here are some of the great names we discovered:
I basically used “Long John Silver” as a template. I thought up a bunch of adjectives for the first name (“Long”), then some old-crotchety names for the second name (John), then a great pirate last name (via google) for the last name (Silver).
7. The Prizes.
At each station, the kids got a piece to a pirate costume: an eye patch ($1 for 50 at Oriental Trading), a red and white striped sash (hand cut by moi), black bandanna (also cut by me, much cheaper than buying bandannas!), pirate tattoo and of course, the pirate name tag.
The best part of this was by the end of the day, all the kids were wearing costumes and looked so cute!
8. The Reading Nook
We own two really great pirate books that we read regularly. One is How I Became a Pirate
Finally, I decided to do a Reading Nook. Because as everyone knows, pirates LOVE to read. Ahem. Anywhoo, I checked out about 20 pirate books from the library and collected a few other pirate books I had laying around. Threw them on the floor with my favorite Pottery Barn tablecloth ($17 on sale!) and we were set!
The kids totally loved this! And it was a great place for opening presents and eating cake. I might do this again. I liked it!
9. The Feel-Good-Ness
It was a fun laid back yet exciting party. The kids loved the adventure of the game. I think the costumes added to the fun. It was a beautiful day—almost fall but not too far away from summer. Once the station game was done, we all sat on the back porch and watched our little pirates play the games again and make up their own new games.
This is my brother pretending it hurts when Asa puts the tattoo on him. Asa laughed so hard!
10. The Pirate
Oh, my little pirate. He was such a big boy at the party. At first he just stood in the middle of the yard staring at everyone. He couldn’t believe all the fun and commotion going on around him. Then he giggled and played and dressed up with the rest of them. He said thank you for every present and was sufficiently impressed with each one.
I love the way he just sits back and watches everything. He’s the sweetest pirate I know.
:: :: ::
Only 1500 words! I did it! One post on the pirate party…well, actually, I remembered 5 other things I forgot to tell you (the guest book, the entry way, the sand art, the goody bags and the music)…we’ll get back to them another day, ok?
Now, it’s YOUR turn! Got something fun to share with us? Let’s see your best Top Ten list! Just WRITE a fun post on your blog—any topic is fine as long as it’s ohAmanda friendly and a list of 10! Then, LINK back to me in the post–so others can join the listaliciousness. PASTE the url to your post in the linky below. Now it’s time to start LOVIN’ on the rest of the participants–just click them to give them some traffic, leave them a comment if you’re inspired, stumble if you’ve got the time, give it a facebook like if you’re feeling friendly or send out a tweet if you’re really happy (we use the #toptentues hashtag).
For official rules and a cute post button, visit my Top Ten {Tuesday} page!
{linking to My Insanity’s 3rd Anniversary Blog Party–link up YOUR Birthday Party and win big!}
Ok, you officially win “Mom of the Year” award!!!
What an amazing party. I’m sure Asa LOVED it…but now you have to top it next year!!
Oh. My. Goodness. It’s official. You are crazy and my kids totally get ripped off by their own slacker mom.
Great ideas! I’m totally bookmarking this post for future reference!
Oh my goodness, you really go all out. What wonderful memories those kids (and you) will have of that day.
That is an amazing Pirate party! I love your activities. So cute & so fun!
All right, can I just say that you throw the BEST kid’s parties EVER? Seriously!! I don’t have the time, desire, or ability to carry out something like you just did. That’s so awesome!! Can we party at your house next birthday? 😉
I totally didn’t get the oranges! Scurvy! Love it! You need to mention that your brother’s hat is a blow-up hat- it was hilarious. Totally laughing at the tricorn hats. After the party, I pointed out the funny looking cookies in the kitchen and said, “how did I miss cookies?” She said, “because I don’t think they left the kitchen.” …and now we know why!
Oh my word!! How long did all the planning for this take??? This is amazing! YOU are amazing! You are so creative and talented! You need to have a birthday party consulting service. I’d hire you to help plan Ladybug’s next party. I’m serious.
You throw an awesome kid’s party! Can you plan and run my son’s next birthday party?! lol!
That is the most adorable pirate party ever! I wish I were that creative and organized!
wow. wow. wow. That’s amazing! I love when the theme is so thoroughly thought out like you did. Just amazing.
As usual, a very cute party! And nice use of the word “macabre”. Even though I’ve never heard of it 🙂
What an awesome party! Good inspiration for my daughter’s birthday coming up next month!
I love the pirate name station–sharktooth agnes rave is still wearing hers around the house! Also, the reading nook is a super idea. Ben told me that they sat and read a few together.
Sharktooth Agnes. *happy sigh*
I LOVE this! I love ALL your parties!!! And I don’t think I would mind a week of party posts… just sayin…
Fantastic ideas! I love the idea of the reading nook at the party… great for children who need a break from all of the commotion 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE! How cute. If I ever have a boy I’m totally doing this. I’m impressed with your craftiness too!
FYI, I didn’t read this post until after I wrote my tea party post. I didn’t want to copy your post in any way, Any similarities are purely coincidental! lol
Are you kidding? I can’t get enough of party posts!
Amanda – you TOTALLY out did yourself! This must have been the birthday party of the year! Amazing details and loved that so many of your supplies were so affordable! I want a pirate name!
Stormy Agnes Livingstone
Amanda, I stumbled upon your ‘ohamanda’ and ‘Impress Your Kids’ blogs about six weeks ago, added them to my reader, and have enjoyed them very much. I love creative parties and have put together many over the years. Your Pirate Party was fantastic! I like some of your ideas so much that I’m frustrated my girls … turning 9 and 16… are a little old for this one. Although, on our recent trip to Disney World, my younger daughter was one of the kids picked for the Pirate Tutorial after telling ‘Jack Sparrow’ she LOVED him. (Yep, she shouted it right out and he told her he loved he too. Ugh … I wonder if this will eventually lead to her wanting to date guys with gold earrings.) So, anyway, with all this pirate love and a few adaptations we may shoot for an “Aaarrrgghhhh!” birthday party after all. Thanks for the great ideas.
What website did you find that great font on? Was it free?
It was just on my computer. If I downloaded it, it was so long ago I don’t remember. Sorry!
Such a cool party. I LOVED the pic of Asa laughing when he put the tattoo on your brother.
Holy smokes! You thought of everything. Pirate names, reading nook…I am inspired to step it up a notch for my next party.
Wow, and I thought I was awesome when I took my kids to Chuck E. Cheese! Amazing party.
I would like to be you when I grow up. That is all. Oh, and I want you to plan my 40th next year – with a theme and everything. LOL!
oooh! Planning a 40th would be fun! Can we play games?
Wow!! That is one truly impressive party! I may be stealing some of these ideas for Buba’s first birthday party!
I’m totally going to bookmark this! What great ideas!!! So creative!
Awesome pirate party! I especially love the spinner/activities idea!
Arrrrrgh!
Thanks! It was VERY fun! 🙂
Stopping over from My Insanity & page is officially bookmarked! Great ideas!! Especially love the cannonballs and the get your own pirate name!!! So clever–would love to see your list!!! 🙂
I’ll email it to you! 🙂
Hello there! Your ideas are so much fun, thank u for sharing them!! I am doing a pirate theme for my triplets 5 yr old bday party later this month. Can you share your pirate name list? I’m so excited, great idea!!!!!!
Hi Amber! I don’t know what happened to the list and I’m kicking myself for not being more careful with it. Here’s a description of how I chose the names. Hope it helps: http://ohamanda.com/2010/10/11/the-pirate-party-top-ten-tuesday/comment-page-1/#comment-113265
Love all the pirate game ideas!
Could you e-mail me the list of pirate names?
Me too, I LOVE the name station idea! Thanks.
Can you e-mail me the list of pirate names?
This is by far my favorite idea so far! What a creative way to make a pirate party fun for both boys and girls!!
I put out a request on twitter for pirate party ideas and someone directed me to this. Love! Can you email me the list of pirate names? That would suit my crowd perfectly!
OK. I cannot find that list on my computer. Arrrgh! (heh.) So, here’s what I did…mainly I went with the Long John Silver as my example.
So, I came up with a good list of “first” names that would be good for “Long”–I used nature names (like Sparrow) and typical pirate names/words (salty, etc.) or any other descriptive word like Long (shorty, red, etc.).
The middle name based on “John” was real names. I think I googled “ugliest names” or something like that and got a list I thought sounded pirate-y. I did boys and girls.
The last name (based on Silver) I tried stiff or ugly sounding surnames. I’m pretty sure I googled “british surnames” and looked thru the Harry Potter wiki.
Does that help? I’m so sorry I don’t have the whole list. I saved it on purpose b/c it was a really good list. And lo and behold, I must have deleted it instead. *sigh*
Happy Pirate-ing!
Also, I just googled “famous pirates” and read through their names. If you mix-match some of those you’ll get inspired, too! 🙂
This party looks like it was so much fun 🙂 So many great ideas- I’m actually doing a ‘walk the plank’ type thing too. Thank you so much for sending this link to me- I’m definitely bookmarking it to keep some good last-minute ideas (especially for the food!!)- Kelsey
Here I am looking for ideas and lo and behold you’ve come up with the best pirate party I’ve come across…Of course! I’m really trying to talk Jonah into a pirate party because I just don’t have Buzz and Woody in me this year, but I fear his love for Toy Story is going to win. Love the spinner games obstacle course!
Would love to read about the 5 things you forgot to mention: the guest book, the entry way, the sand art, the goody bags and the music. Was that ever posted?
I never did post it. Hmmm….the guest book was a really nice hardback copy of Treasure Island. Everyone signed the inside cover!
The entry way, I just put up a few pirate-y things: my dad’s swords, an old table for the guestbook, a giant map, a fishing net and some gold coins.
The sand art! Oh, that was so fun! I bought anchor shaped containers at Hobby Lobby and a big container of sand from Oriental Trading http://www.orientaltrading.com/rainbow-craft-sand-assortment-a2-48_4970.fltr?prodCatId=388815&categoryFromSearch=true&tabId=2&rd=sand%20art Then the kids filled their anchors with sand and wore it as a necklace. Here’s a pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anhw/5065917663/
The goody bags were just a collection of stuff from Oriental Trading—the Vacation Bible School that year was a pirate-ship-theme so I bought a ton of leftover (50% off) goodies! I cannot find a picture of it anywhere—I must have forgotten to take one. I remember the bag was like a HappyMeal box in the shape of a treasure box. I think I actually got those at a school supply store! Then the rest of the stuff was from OTC: I got a rubber duckie w/an eye patch, a big sucker and printed off a little note like “Thanks for coming to my Paarrrrty!” or something
Hope that helps!
a
Very cool party! I “googled” pirate party and ended up on your blog. I am going to copy lots of your ideas for my sons 4th birthday party in September! Too bad your friend can’t make my sons cake too! 🙂
What a cute party ! The black bean mango salsa is a very different food served at parties in which I think i am going to look up. I love having the kids get involved in activities and I think its great that you had the ” walk the planks” for the kids. The pirate party supplies sets a great mood and the cake looks amazing! I also enjoyed seeing the girls dress up and have the crazy hair !
What kind of fabric did you cut the bandanas and sashes from? I am looking at doing the same thing. This is AMAZING!
I just went to the fabric store and got the cheapest black fabric I could find. I have no idea what kind it was. Just a basic cotton-type. The same for the red/white stripes. I knew what pattern I wanted and got that! 🙂
a
Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write once more soon!
Admiring the time and effort you put into your website and in depth information you provide. It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same unwanted rehashed information. Excellent read! I’ve saved your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.