There be Pirates

I’m going to start by apologising, if a picture is worth a thousand words then this post is as long as Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.

Just after the last dinosaur adorned child left a year ago and Glenn and I sank into a post party stupor Eli asked "Next year at my pirate party can I have chocolate coins?"

So now I would like to welcome you to Elijah’s 6th birthday Pirate party, chocolate coins and all.

We started with a craft to keep inquisitive little fingers busy till the stragglers (and those having costume malfunctions) arrived. This year we made Oceans in a Bottle from this incredibly helpful party site. They served their purpose well and the kids seemed to enjoy making them although one child ended up wearing an ocean, I really should have had the foresight not to leave the large bottle on the table, Ooops.

After all the kids turned up I climbed up on a chair and announced that last night the nasty pirate Captain Scarface had stolen all the party food and games but that he had left behind a map, torn into pieces and entrusted to three of his crew. I told the children that if we found those three pirates we might be able to persuade them to give us their piece of the map if we did a job for them. I made the map by the age old soak in coffee technique. I find that this looks more authentic it you fold the map first then open and refold it a few times while still wet allowing the paper to age in all the appropriate places.

The first pirate had dropped his treasure chest on a desert island and all his treasure had been lost in the sand.

He gave us his piece of the map once we had dug around in the sand to find his treasure and fill his chest. At this point I would like to thank (it’s a bit like an awards speech really) my darling sister who lives a very busy and far away life but still cares enough about small boys smiles that she provided the contents of this chest and other piratey decorations including an eye patch and hook. The pre party pirate parcel from Jill has been opened and eagerly riffled through many times before the day.

The second pirate gave us his piece of the map after we rebuilt his pirate ship that had been torn to shreds on a dreaded reef.

The last pirate was under attack from an enemy fleet and gave us his piece of the map after we used our scrunched news paper cannon balls to blow the enemy ships out of the water. The terrible enemy ships were printed from this site and coloured in by Lillian.

When all the pieces of the map had been won off the crew members (Two friends and my husband Glenn who I really need to thank for turning up dressed so piratey and playing along, actually most of the adults dressed up as well and it really added to the whole swashbuckling atmosphere) the kids put the map back together. 

They then followed the map taking five steps from the tree marked with a cross and following the rock (it had a tiny arrow on it) for eleven paces and other piratey instructions.

A few of the kids wanted to have a turn at reading the next instruction including Lillian who at four is better at sounding out words like CAT as opposed to YOURSELF and TOWARDS but we managed.

The trail ended with a seemingly inconspicuous patch of ground that everyone had been walking over all day and the simple instruction, dig.

Glenn had dug a hole the day before and buried an esky which I filled with a small treasure chest, party food and a few ice packs because November in Australia is not really the best time to be leaving chocolaty treasure laying around.

The small treasure chest contained little parcels wrapped in news paper with a chocolate coin sticky taped to it (see request accomplished)

We all sat down and played pass the treasure chest which worked a bit like a lucky dip box.

Cloppy horse and Pooh Bear are modelling the items found in the treasure chest. I made little daggers and eye patches with stiffened felt bought from Spotlight and the necklaces had gold coin beads from Spotlight that really did look like pirate doubloons. The rest of the beads were from local cheap shops because they were about a quarter of the price of the bags of beads from Spotlight and I wasn’t sure how much money I wanted to pour into children’s party favours that could be tossed in a day or two, we know how fickle children’s interest can be.

The cake was a treasure chest by request but with a surprise, because I’m like that. I’m pretty sure it went down well judging by the glass shattering squealing that ensued just after this photo was taken, but this post is already to long to explain, I might do a separate cake post, I took pictures.

Some of the other food from the treasure esky. These are mini pirate face cup cakes (another Eli request) I have found mini works better at parties if you offer the large they just eat the icing then your house ends up full of cake crumbs. The bandanas were piped on, the eye patch was a chocolate button cut in half, the eye a mini M&M and the mouth was a pink dot from a box of sprinkles.

I will leave you with a warning if you are ever heading this way.

ARRRRR Me Hearties BEWARE OF PIRATES!!!!

Oh and as we were tidying up after the party Glenn mentioned to me that he needed to shave now that he wasn’t being a scruffy pirate. To which Eli called out

"NO, you can’t do that or I wont let you come to my Super Hero party because you have to come as SUPER BEARD"