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Ahoy, me mateys! The Homespun Chics’ favorite little guy just turned 4 and we all had the best time putting together a super fun pirate themed birthday party for him! Pinterest was our go-to inspiration tool and we found so many clever ideas for food, decorations, games, and more that it was hard to narrow them down to just the few we used to keep the party prep manageable and expenses doable.

Invitations

These invitations were fun and easy to make! We adapted a pre-written invitation, added some clip art, and printed it up on regular paper which was then tea-dyed and burned around the edges. Each invitation was rolled into a scroll and tied up with twine, then handed out to party invitees. We were amazed at how popular these invitations turned out to be – so many moms at Little G’s preschool stopped Sarah to talk about them and we found out that a number of invitations were hung on the walls at home so the kids could enjoy anticipating the event!

Decorations

We rented a Pirate-themed room at the local Mountain Play Lodge to avoid unpredictable weather and to give all of the kids plenty to do. The room had the basics of a pirate ship, complete with a pirate in the corner to watch over all the presents until it was time to open them. The children could all go climb around and play in the play lodge and come back into the party room when it was officially party time, then go back to play in the play lodge after the party for as long as they and their parents wanted to stay. We used a pirate map and festooned the tables with gold coins and Mardi-Gras type necklaces of all colors. And Sarah, Jonathan, and I all wore family pirate shirts – Captain Mom,  First Mate Grandma, and Arrr!

Refreshments

Choosing the party refreshments was probably the most fun part of our party planning. The party was scheduled for 10 AM until 12 PM so we did not have to provide a meal for our guests but still wanted plenty of snacks available for everyone. We decided to serve:

Cannonballs (small meatballs in grape jelly sauce) – Get the recipe

Fish & Chips (potato chips & goldfish crackers)

Seaweed Dip (spinach dip)  – Get the recipe

Veggie Island

(raw vegetable platter with ranch dip and hummus)

Shark Teeth

(pre-sliced cheddar & colby-jack cheese cut into triangles)

Polly’s Crackers

(Captains’s Wafers)

Pirate’s Booty

(baked rice & corn puffs)

Baby Clams

(mini vanilla wafers with strawberry cream filling) – Get the recipe

Bait Fish

(gummy fish)

Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

(chocolate cake and vanilla cake with Martha Stewart’s Perfect Cream Cheese frosting & pirate picks decorations) – Get the recipe

Red and black pirate themed plates and napkins, of course!

Drinks 

(0rganic fruit juice boxes, La Croix sparkling waters, 4 oz bottled waters)

in Treasure Chest Coolers

These coolers looked easy to do on Pinterest but turned out to be a pretty big project that needed to be started early in the week. Large styrofoam coolers were not available at our local store. The paint had to be water-based or craft paints, not cans of spray paint that would melt the styrofoam, so each cooler had to be taped off and brush painted with 2 coats. The directions also suggested using a hot glue gun to put dots (for the rivets) on each cooler, which worked fine on the first cooler but when the gun got really hot it just melted holes where the dots should have been. Dark (or painted) thumbtacks would have been easier and quicker. But the end result was all good and the drinks stayed cold!

Get the directions!

Activities

One of the benefits of holding the party at the play lodge was that the kids intrinsically had plenty to do, so we provided just a few activities in the party room itself.

Tattoo Parlor

We had a willing volunteer and lots of temporary tattoos!

Captain Hook Ring Toss

Arggh! Much more complex than we thought when we chose this one! A piece of plywood with a painted design would have been much easier! This particular ring toss was done on an extra large piece of foam board. The single page image was photocopied into a huge engineering copy at Office Depot and glued onto the foam board. I had ordered wipe-on furniture stain cloths to use but they did not arrive in time and I couldn’t find them in the local stores, so we tea dyed the paper. Then cut the excess foam board from around it, cut the holes for the pirate hooks to be pushed into, and glued the rope around the edge. The directions called for a stand to be made from more foam board to hold the board upright, but we declined that option and instead just stood it up against the wall.

Get the directions!

Bean Bag Toss

Store bought and we’ll use this again at a later party.

Party Favors

We wanted to send our little guests home with a few fun items so we put an assortment of party favors in these Treasure Chest Treat Boxes.

Our favorite little pirate showing off some of his bounty!

Our pirate party was a huge success and so much fun to plan and create! We got inspiration from some blogs who shared their pirate party plans on Pinterest:

www.catchmyparty.com

www.elevate-everyday.com

www.tesslysns.blogspot.com

www.fleecefun.com