Argh! It’s a Pirate Party.

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Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day TODAY with a Pirate Party.

My oldest son had picked Pirates for his 9th birthday party which is in February. Now I am sure you are thinking I must have spent a fortune on Pirate costumes in the middle of Winter. Nope, not this deal loving momma! I make my children pick their birthday themes out way in advance like 9-12 months ahead. Why do I do this? Simple, I have a much greater chance of finding items on clearance at the end of Summer, after Halloween, and after Christmas for their birthday themes. If a child has 2 themes planned the better, then whichever theme we find the most amount of items is the theme for that year.

Costumes: 

The birthday boy went as Jack Sparrow and we made his outfit. He wanted a vest and the head kercheif so I took fabric I owned and made those items. We needed dark brown pants and a friend of mine’s son had outgrown that size. I spent $10 on 3 pairs of pants and handful of long sleeved shirts. My daughter’s costume was on clearance and we spent $5. Lil’ Red’s costume was found by my sister on clearance for $2.50 at Target! Originally each costume would have been $20-$25-yikes!

Costume items for guests were either made ahead, made at the party, or bought on clearance. I made “kits” for one of the activity stations to make the braided and beaded hair-piece that Jack Sparrow wears. I also made felt eye patches, but found plastic ones with large gold hoop earrings on clearance at Walmart.

Games and Crafts:

I searched online for tons of ideas for games and grafts. Of course I found tons and pinned my favorites onto Kid’s Pirate Party board! I had such good choices to choose from that it was tough to narrow it down. Since this party was primarily boys I chose things that weren’t too crafty or boring. I always include coloring pages and goody bags at our parties. The goody bags start off as plain lunch sacks which the guests are then encouraged to decorate and then carry with them as the win prizes at the party. ALL GAMES have a prize and ALL PARTICIPANTS win a prize no matter if they “win” the game or not.

I used 4×6 plexiglass frames with pictures in them as targets. Then I made sure we had working nerf dart guns and plenty of darts for this Pirate Target Shoot!

I found a simple craft creating paper swords from newsprint. This super simple and not dangerous craft was a big hit at the party. You can make them again an again if they get wrecked and much cheaper than the foam dollar store swords!

I found foam frames that were pirate themed on clearance at JoAnn’s.

Cake:

What would a Pirate Party be without a Treasure Map! A simple cookie sheet with chocolate chip cookie dough provided the base. Basic buttercream icing helped hold on the blue sugar ocean, the brown sugar sand, plastic trees from animal kit, plastic whale, mini Lego treasure chest, and Jack Sparrow Lego minifigure.

I hope you enjoyed taking a small peak into how our family celebrates birthdays. I told my children that I will plan their first 10 birthdays and after that it’s up to them:) Right now that means I will have planned 40 children’s birthday parties! Yikes that is a lot:)