Arrgh!! It's a Pirate's Life, I Want.

Arrgh!!

Ahoy me hearties.  Back in May, Captain Morgan and her trusty first mate, Riley, celebrated their 5th and 2nd birthdays together.  While Riley enjoyed the festivities, the party was more for Morgan and her motley crew of scallywags. A great day, indeed, for pirate activities/games, delicious grub, and a treasure hunt.

As the kids arrived, we fitted them with pirate hats.  Morgan likes color so rather than having just black hats, we let the kids choose the color hat they wanted and adorning skull and feathers.  They also got to pick a patch and grab their newspaper swords.  Arrgh, they unleashed their inner pirates as they ran around the yard.

I had 6 stations for all the kids:

• Shark Bay - A body of water made of blue nylon with card board shark fins sticking out.  The kids used rope taped together, forming rings, and tried to toss them onto a fin.  Sounds cool but the rings were not large enough to fit well over the fins and shark hunter, Riley, plucked the fins off the sharks when people were not looking.  Luckily, we had the staple gun still handy.

• Sink the Ship - I took Styrofoam balls and painted them black to make cannon balls.  I taped pirate ships to plastic bottles and piled them high.  The kids would throw the cannon ball at the bottles to see how many they could know down.

• Walk the Plank - I placed one board on the ground (easy) and another elevated 6-8 in off the ground (hard).  The kids were forced to walk the plank, they got to choose which one.

• Plunder for Treasure - The kids would dig for large acrylic diamonds and exchange them for a ring sucker.  Unfortunately, Morgan had been playing with the night before and misplaced half of them  We still had enough for the game, though.

• Arrgh - Picture taken with a bonafide pirate's parrot.

• Scallywags - Pirate Tattoos makes the outfit complete.

Joaquin, Elias, and Ceder
trying to Sink Ships.

Captain Logan at Shark Bay

I divided the group of kids into smaller groups and with the aide of parents, the pirates were off on their adventure.  The games had their flaws but i don't think the kids paid no never mind and a lot of fun.

After the games, i handed the kids a scavenger hunt.  They looked for pictures that matched the pictures on their paper and wrote down the corresponding letter.  Solving the puzzle would lead them to the buried treasure.  They unearthed a box filled mini paper mache treasure chests for each of the kids.  The treasure chests were filled with pirate coins, jeweled rings, beads in the shape of jewels to make bracelets or whatever they wished, and, of course, chocolates.  

Morgan painting the sword hilt or guard.

The mini treasure chests.

Morgan was a lot of help in the planning of her party. She helped make a lot of the game pieces (painting the fins and gluing the pirate ships on the bottles).  She also helped paint the swords and treasure boxes, glued the gems on top, and helped make all the beautiful rings.

We ended the party with singing Happy Birthday to both girls and devouring a mix of red velvet, chocolate, and white cupcakes with either chocolate or cream cheese frosting.  Yum.

She is already excited for next years party.  The theme...Barbie.  I know, gag.  No worries, i am already putting my spin on the theme so i stomach planning it.  I am thinking, Barbie meets Mad Scientist.  I have a wonderful book on science experiments.  Hmm, i wonder if i could get my hands on some liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.