Birthdays Past - Pirate Party

Hey there,

My personal ray of sunshine is turning 9 in less than a month.

As I sit here to plan her birthday party, I can't help but think about the birthdays past and how the ball started rolling. I hope you will stay on for the 'Nostalgia Ride'.

The very first party I threw was a 'Pirate Party' for my son. I remember how I threw myself into the spirit of it. I bought decorations, dress up accessories like swords, eye patches, tattoos and bandannas. I bought a lot of wooden boxes of different sizes and spray painted them black.

Do you see the plastic glasses that I have also spray painted black? I did something really cool with them. I made a hole at the bottom and made a hook with aluminium foil. 

One of the games we played was 'Musical Islands'. This is like 'Musical Chairs' but instead of chairs, which I did not have enough for all kids or the space for it anyways, I simply stuck green plates to the floor. The kids had to dance in the middle while the music played. When the music stopped, they had to find an island to hop on.

The one who did not find an island, had to have his/her hand 'cut off' by the mean pirate (Me!) and got the hooked hand instead. The kids loved it so much that they actually preferred the hook to the island. I was so pleased with the success of my hook hands.

As the kids came in, they got to decorate their very own pirate hat. I had pre-cut black poster paper in the special shape and even written their name on each so there would be no confusion. They also each picked up an eye-patch and a sword. Now they were ready to sail the seas. Arrrghhh!!

Another fun game we played was called 'Pop the Cannonball'. I had blown up some (a LOT!!) round black balloons. Each kid had to use his/her sword to pop the balloon. Not only was the loud sound a great source of fun (remember we are talking about 4-5 year olds), but I had also stashed some candy into each balloon. So as they burst the balloons, they also got some candy for their effort.

 

And what pirate party would be complete without a 'Pin the EyePatch on the Pirate'?

There was also a treasure hunt for the goodie bags, but the little ones were quite tired by then. Just one older kid thoroughly enjoyed solving the riddle that led everyone to the treasure chest.

There were some other touches such as the Pirate Cake and tableware.

And of course, we had set the mood for the party with our one of a kind party invites...

For the boys:

For the girls:

Aahh! Good memories. Of course as the kids grow older, the number of friends being invited gets lower (sort of...I try).

That was almost 6 years ago. With the experience of the years I hope I will be able to pull off another fun birthday party for the kids. It won't be long before they don't need such elaborate parties anymore, so I plan to indulge myself as much as I can.

Or perhaps I can start planning parties for other kids! Now there's a comforting thought.

I will share other birthday party ideas over the next few blogs and of course, the reveal for this years party will be on (right after the party!).

Share your happy memories with me too.