pirate party for mason

we had a birthday party for mason over the weekend. he will be turning five on october 5th. we decided to celebrate early this year because we will be having another party for connor at the end of october. fall is a busy season around here.

we had a pirate theme. what a fun party theme. you can really go crazy with all the pirate stuff available. i was lucky that halloween is right around the corner and there is pirate stuff everywhere. this was our first real "kid party" where we had kid activities and lots of kids attending. usually our parties are mostly adults with a few little kids running around. it was really fun to see all the kids playing pirates.

we spent quite a while last week working on party decorations. we turned our swing set into a pirate ship by making a large sail and pirate flag to attach to it. this was made with old sheets and wooden dowels from the hardware store. miles did a great job with this. once we had our "pirate ship" we added a wooden plank off the side for the kids to "walk the plank." this was close to the ground so there wouldn't be any injuries. we also filled the sand box at the bottom of the swing set with plastic gold coins and beaded necklaces as treasure for the kids to dig up. they had to each find three coins and a necklace after walking the plank to earn their pirate gear. the pirate gear was a bandanna, foam sword and pirate tattoo. they loved digging up the treasure. i would have put more stuff in there had i known this would be so popular.

once the kids were all dressed as pirates they got to go on a treasure hunt. my brother in law ray was kind enough to be the mastermind behind this. he wrote up all the clues and hid the treasure. there was a series of four clues hidden in bottles that eventually led to a hidden treasure chest. the chest was filled with loot bags that i sewed from canvas and painted a skull and crossbones on using a potato stamp. the loot bags were the party favors for the kids. i filled the bags with a candy necklace, ring pop, skull and crossbones bouncy ball, skull necklace kit, and stickers. the kids loved the treasure hunt. they were not very good about following the clues though. they just wanted to run around with their swords and hunt for the treasure. kind of like real pirates i bet.

then it was time for cake. my sister jen was crazy nice and made this amazing pirate ship cake. it was delicious. thanks sister! mason loved his cake. all in all it was a super fun party. the only thing that was bumming me out was that it was so so hot. it was over 100 degrees and our air conditioner in the kitchen was not working. ugh. it was so hot that the chocolate coins on the table inside started to melt. oh well. i don't think the kids even realized it was hot. they were having too much fun. thanks to everyone who celebrated with us.