::pirate party::

This kid turned 6!

And we had to have a party... 

 

And for the record we used our trailer to take our supplies down to the church.  

We are getting pretty serious.  

 A PIRATE PARTY!!! 

The treat table had jello pirate ships, pirate rice crispies, cannon balls (black gum), fruit swords, two treasure chests of candy, Swedish fish, and two cakes.

Why two cakes?  Quinn turn two on 2/3.  He doesn't care about the rule that you don't get big parties till you are school age.  He thinks all parties are his party.  So, till he figures it out he can share parties with Max.    

Iced by Lily. 

For the record these are not Jello shots.  

I can't tell you how many people asked me if they were.  

I know I am crazy, but even I wouldn't give Kindergarteners booze.

 Cakes where made by my wonderful and reasonable cake lady.  

Message me for her contact info.  

Quinn's cake.  

 

 

 The cake was so heavy that it was easier to hold Max over it than move it to him. 

Josh printed me off a few pirate flags.

We started a few weeks ago on the grand ship, but we could finish it till we got it in the gym. 

The mast and sail was too big to be assembled at our house.  

And I love how it all came together.  We got most of our boxes from dumpster diving at rental shops.  The front is made from a 70 inch TV box.  The middle is made from a 60 inch TV box.  The back is made from a stove box.  The curved back was made from scraps of other boxes pieced together.  The sail is super cheap scrap wood, chicken wire, and a $5 black sheet from Walmart.  Total cost with duct tape included was less than $20 and the kids loved it. 

  

We had some old scrap boxes set up for the boys to play with. 

For crafts we had three options -

They could make a spyglass.

They could make a parrot.

And they could make a pirate hand stamp.  

Please forgive his purple beard.  I didn't have black when we did our mock up. 

 

 

 We had a pirate gear table when they walked it.  They had pirate sashes, which where cut up strips from a $5 sheet.  They also had pirate beards, swords, earrings, and tattoos. 

I really fell in love with the adorable beards that my Mother In-Law came up with.  She threw them together about 10 mins before the party.  I was very impressed. 
  

So impressed that I had to wear one.

Even Q felt the pirate fever. 

 Curly head had a great time rocking it out with his homies. 

Two pirates.  

 Josh was so helpful to me.  He was the head engineer of the ship and actual is the reason we had it almost done in advance.  He even built me the sail when I changed my mind last minute and wanted one.  As usual - I am lucky to have him. 

 And Mr. Max.  What a delicious little creature.  A big bad six year old.  

All pictures by Emma.  

Link to project ideas and even free printables - pinned on my Pintrest page.  

This was my first school age big party for Max.  
What did I learn:
Boy's don't usually care about crafts.
Don't give boys weapons.  I had to take away the swords.
Don't try and have organized activities.  They just want to run. 
Keep it short.  The whole party was 1.5 hours.  Perfect.
Don't ever let a herd of wild children into your tiny house.  
We had the party at a near by church gym.   

::pirate party invitations::

I had to experiment with these bad boys.  

All of them are printed on card stock from my super cheap home printer.  I made the font in a dark brown to try and add to the aged effect.  The pirate at the top was off a Google search for "free pirate clip art". 

The first try was cut out to be a map shape and then dipped in watered down food color mixed to be brown.  It turned out green and not wrinkled enough.

The second try was paper dipped in the food coloring and them wrinkled into a ball.  It came out so faded and over wrinkled that you could no longer read it.  And it was still green.

Lily likes to make herself tea so I made a batch and experimented with it.  It was too pink, not very brown.  By this point I had looked up online from Martha Stewart the idea of putting the mixture  into a spray bottle instead of dipping the paper.  I had also figured out by this point to spray the paper lightly.  Then wrinkle it into a ball - this made the paper easier to wrinkle but the print didn't fade.  But even with all this experimentation the color was still too pink.  

I didn't want to go to the store and buy a darker tea just for this.  I started digging through the cabinets looking for something brown that would work.  I came up with baking cocoa.  I wasn't sure it would work but I figured - why not?  I put one teaspoon for about 1.5-2 cups of water into a spray bottle.  It worked well.  

Here are my final directions -
Print invitation in brown ink on white card stock.  
Take one teaspoon powdered baking cocoa to about 2 cups of water.  Put in a spray bottle and mix very well.  
Spray the front of each invite lightly.  Make sure you cover it but don't soak it.  Rub it in with your hands.  Be careful on any place with black ink because the smear on them was more obvious.  
Turn the page over and lightly spray and smear the back.
Wad the page into a ball.
Smooth it out, able more spray if needed, and leave it to dry.  
When dry rip the invite roughly into a map like shape.  
Smooth out the paper like you would a dollar bill you are trying to get into a soda machine.  
Burn the edges.  
Show them to Max and have him add his name and use a pencil to poke a hole in each one.  He says its a cannon ball.  
Roll it into a map and tie it with the string of your choice.  I used yellow raffia because it was near by.

 

 

::it's time for the Pirate Party::

I AM SO EXCITED!!

It's time to get rolling on the Pirate Party.

The kids don't get huge parties until they are school age.  But since Max and Q's birthdays are only two days apart I am throwing Max a big awesome Pirate Party, and having a little nod to Q in it too.  In his 2 year old mind he will think that its his party anyway.

INVITES:

Invites need to be pirate maps.  I have been playing around with a few different ideas about how to make them look like old maps.  These are a few of my inspiration ideas.  Don't bring up putting them in a bottle - these are going to be passed out at Max's kindergarten class and glass bottles are not realistic.  Plus - with only so much budget glass bottles seem like an unnecessary waste.  


CAKE:

Sometimes I make the cakes if the idea is simple, sometimes I have it made if my dreams our bigger than my skills.  I have the most amazing cake lady.  She is inexpensive for the quality of her work and she delivers.  I throw a ball of ideas at her and she makes them real.  Never once had I wished for more from a cake she has brought us.  Here are the cake ideas that I emailed her.  She will mix them together and come up with a two tier cake for Max and a smaller side cake for Q.

Decorations:
I will have a big red X on the door of the gym and then the hallway in full of black streamers that the kids have to walk through.  I have an idea of what I want to do with the cake and treat table but I am still trying to figure that one out.  I think the stations are going to be plenty of decoration but I will also be to sprinkle gold coins all over the place.  I plan to kind of figure this out the day of.  I'll just have lots of basics to decorate with and go with it.  

Intro Craft:

 I have found over the years that it is good to have a craft or two at the start of the party.  Something fun, but not your main craft.  Something that kids can spend 15 mins on if they come on time or something that they could quickly throw together if they come late and we have moved on to other things.  I call it an intro craft.  For the pirate party I am going to have a table set up right when the kids set up with a few crafts.  They will be making looking glasses out of paper towel rolls, gluing feathers on their parrot, and making a pirate hand print.  During this time they will also pick out a pirate name - something like Scurvy Mike and they will have set an area to put all their things to take home.  That way at the very end of the party pretty much everyone can just grab their stuff and go.   

Pirate Stations

Here is the meat and potatoes of the party.  After the intro crafts are done we get started on Pirate Stations.  I am using the word stations because that is the same wording they using in their kindergarten class.  These little people know that word, they understand it.  I will divide them into groups if lots of them are there, if we have a smaller number then I will just let them pick their own stations.  The first time they do a station they get a little pirate prize.  After they do them all they will have a collection of pirate gear.  I may not do all of these, but these are the basic concepts.  Since this will be a an church  
1.  Walk the blank.  Big cardboard boat with sail that has an opening to a wooden board up on milk crates.  They walk the blank like they would walk a balance beam.  Underneith will be a blue sheet with shark fins.  First time they do it they get an eye patch.
2.  Swab the deck.  Push black balloons with a push broom around some kind of area.  Maybe into a basket.  After this they get a pirate sash.
3.  Crab walk to get a pirate tattoo.
4.  Climb the mast.  A rope tied to heavy weights that they must pull themselves along to get to the end of.  After this one they get a pirate sword (a blow up from the party store).
5.  Peg leg hop.  Hop on one leg over a certain area and get a pirate hat.
6.  Pirate Cave.  Go through a few boxes taped together to look like a cave and get a beard.
  

Pirate Games
I need a few filler games to keep things going.  Some times kindergarteners needs to just run around and be crazy.
Cannon Ball Blast - each kid has a balloon tied to their ankle and they run around trying to pop each others balloons. 
Musical Islands -I will have a few different islands pre-made.  Things like a red island with a canon on it.  Or a blue island with a parrot.  I will have about ten islands.  Then I tell the kid to go to a red.  Or a cannon.  Or a blue.  Then after five or six directions I pick a winner card.  Card will have one thing on them.  Like a red or a cannon.  Then anyone on the red wins.  Its very similar to the game Hullabaloo.  Winner has to do something - like give a pirate shout. 
I always have a mental list of a few filler games just in case my timing is wrong - usually things like Simon Says and Red Light Green Light.