Entertaining

» Belinda Mooney - More pirate fun!

I love the pirate theme ideas. I have some coloring sheets and printable pirate crafts at Kids Crafts

Belinda

» Janice Benoit - More pirate fun!

Thanks Belinda -- your printable sheets and crafts would be a good activity to add to any Pirate Party. If you are waiting for parents to pick up the kids, or there is some downtime while others are catching up on the activity, the activity sheets can be used to get all the partygoers on the same page!
~Janice

» camismom - More pirate fun!

I just threw my son and baby girl a pirate-luau party.Our invitations were really cool and said Ahoy their matey. Ye presence be requested at our bash.I need yer help The treasure's been stolen and it must be found so set sail(adress,time etc.)Be there or be prepared to walk the plank swabbie. We had a blast. My husband made these great pirate ships out of matress boxes and we had water baloon fights. We also dressed all the kids in pirate costumes. My son had the jack sparrow costume, my baby girl wore a pirate hat,hula skirt and my son was also allowed to pre-pick his first mate. He got a special hat. The kids had a blast with their swords and the pirate guns. Anyway we had boiled crawfish and my son requested hot dogs with black sails( wooden skewers and construction paper) I made his cake pirate cake on betty crocker.com it was super easy. My daughter's cake I had made. It was flipflops with white chocolate sea shells and crumbled yellow cake to look like sand. I was worried that the girls wouldn't have fun but they got into it!For the grand finale we had a treasure hunt of course. We made a trerasure chest out of a styrafoam ice chest painted brown and the inside gold. It was the best party we had ever thrown and everyone wants one now. Oh yeah our thankyou cards had a picture of all the kids dressed-up in a pirate ship. We found the frame crafts at oriental trading.com they had a palm tree and said alola. Anyway I hope this was helpful for anyone who has a child wanting tosail the seven seas.

-- posted by camismom

» Janice Benoit - More pirate fun!

Great implementation of a pirate theme! You should be writing this column!!

Many thanks for sharing,

~Janice

» camismom - More pirate fun!

Thank you so much for your compliment. Most people just think i'm a housewife with too much time! I wanted to share a few more things I did that the kids loved. My decorations were really fun I'm kinda artsy so i made a ton of signs. My favorite was on the door it read "Caution this residence has been comandeered by pirates." I had a lot of skull and cross bones with "Beware of pirates." On my son's favorite one I drew two bare feet with a red circle and line through it, and it read "No landlubers allowed tresspassers will walk the plank". I also decorated our gazeebo which for the party was called Tortouga from pirates of the Caribean. I had some crab nets which I filled with plastic crabs and mardi gras beads(gold, and pearl). I draped the beads off the sides so they looked like they had just been pulled up.We had a patio mister from Walmart which helped set the scene also. Oh and of course we were flying a giant Jollyrodger flag. For the rest of my yard I set up the scene. I had our ships on a blue tarp, and I had a blow up palm tree. When I drew my treasure map I used these as markings. I buried the treasure in my kids' sandbox. When it was time for our treasure hunt I had all the kids put on their hats and swords. I decided to try to do a role playing thing. I had my daughter go to her brother and all the kids and say Capt. Tyler I have a message for you. She then read the map which said "Stop ye pillaging lend me ye ear I have a message for ye to hear, the treasure's been stolen and must be found so let's set sail Pearl Island bound". We then got all the kids in their pirate hats and gave them their swords, we got them all in the biggest ship. So they sailed and then I told one of the kids to yell land ho. We then got them all out and and sat them in a row and had them "paddle" to shore. At that point I told my son to lead the way and find the treasure! I know that the role play seems a bit much I was nervous about it. The party was for my son(5)and my baby(2), so as you can imagine the kids were young ranging from 2-6. But believe it or not they had a blast. My 2 year old did it all. The kids really enjoyed doing it. Most of them said that this and the water baloon fights were their favorite part! So my advice to all parents is never underestimate a child's imagination. That is what I learned from this party and trying it out.

-- posted by camismom