Spencer's Pirate Birthday Party

Spencer is turning six (!!!) on the 15th, and so today was party day.  (We only do friend parties on even-numbered years.)

As I've mentioned for parties past, I'm not a big spender when it comes to kid parties.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  I was figuring it out, and today's party, all favors and food included, cost me around $40. (Mainly because I used a lot of stuff I already had around the house.)

Oh c'mon.  That's AWESOME.  I'm impressed with myself.  Especially because I think the party was pretty great.  Well, that's what Spencer told me, and we all know that kid's a genius.

I'm not sure why, but a while back Spencer decided he really wanted a pirate birthday party.  That's a pretty easy theme, so I was more than happy to oblige.

First, decorations.

I made the "Pirate Party" sign out of felt.  The streamers are ripped pieces of some old muslin that I had.  I think it looks cool.  Crepe paper?  Not very piratey.  Ripped up muslin?  Tres piratey.  I guess I could have used some rope, too, but didn't have any on hand.  (Side note: I was going to do skull and cross bones on the flags, but turns out those are harder to cut out than I originally thought.  Oh well.)

Second, the cake.

Oy.  I was going for this.  What I got was this.

Making cakes is hard!  Actually, decorating cakes is hard.  Seriously.  I've never been that great at it.  Poor lopsided treasure chest.  The cake kept falling apart.  And the the frosting kept getting all crumby and whatnot.  All SIX CUPS of frosting.  Sheesh.  (Yes, it weighed a ton.)  But no matter, because all the kids were impressed with it.  Sure, I could have just put a dirty bucket full of candy on the table and they'd be just as impressed, but still.

Why yes, those are rats underneath the cake.  I thought the cake platter needed a little pirating up.  Rats = manly.

Plus, they're just so dang cute.

Third, party favors.

I decided to spend a little more than I normally would have on the pirate hats.  I wanted something that would actually last through the party.  I found these ones on sale at Oriential Trading Co.  (Score!)  Pirates also need some jewels from their treasure, so everyone got some beaded pirate bling.  Sweet.

I had three cute little pirates who were more than happy to model for me.

Omigosh.  My kiddos are so dang cute.  Sorry.  But it had to be said.

Every pirate needs a hook.  I had originally planned to use plastic cups and cut out cardboard hooks.  But then I saw the candy canes in the store, put two and two together, and viola!

I'll admit, I was quite pleased with myself. :)  When the kiddos arrived they got to decorate the hooks with stickers, all of which came out of my sticker drawer.  (Christmas stickers on a pirate hook?  Sure!)

I also made medals for the games.  I used the lame-o invites that came with the pirate cups and plates I ordered.

I like the beads.  Again - piratey.  And again - I already had the string and beads, so cheap!

Speaking of invites, here's what Spencer's looked like.

I had them printed as postcards on Walmart.com.  I used a $10 gift card Lance had gotten for ordering something.  Nice.

(Side note: this is the first time I let Spencer make the guest list.  I'll admit, in years past I invited my friends, who just happened to have kids close to Spencer's age.  Hey, he didn't care.  But this year he invited kids from school and church - and it was great!)

Back to the party.  Or, 15 minutes before the party.  Josh and Spencer started to get a little crazy waiting for everyone to come.

They danced pirate jigs.

And wrestled.

And demanded that I take pictures of them.

Finally, the guests arrived!

First, a little hook decorating and modeling.

I'm all about the east, classic games.  Like 'Musical X Marks the Spot'.  (Hence the black electrical tape X's on the floor.)

Joshie actually did a pretty good job!

Then we played 'Don't Eat Pirate Pete'.  I made my own pirate board:

We used Honey Buzzers (generic Honey Comb) as the treats because I thought they looked like gold pirate coins.  The kids didn't buy that, but it didn't stop them from devouring as many as they could!

Then we moved on to the ever classic 'Put the Patch on the Pirate'.  It was great - the kids thought it was hysterical.

I drew the pirate poster myself (thanks, WikiHow!) and the boys colored him.  Don't you love how , ah, close Logan's patch was?

Finally, it was time for the treasure hunt.  The kids raced around the house for each clue.  Lance read the clues out loud.  Logan was pretty sure he needed to read all of the clues.  During one point he shouted out  in all seriousness "I don't have a clue!"  Gigi, Lance and I both had to bite our tongues not to say anything or laugh out loud.  That kid cracks me up.

The treasure at the end of the hunt was their goodie bags.  Okay, so I used paper bags tied with raffia and the kids didn't quite know what to think of them when they first opened the oven to find them.  But once they opened them and discovered the pirate loot they were quite happy.  Kazoos were blasted, candy was devoured, and unsuspecting fingers were caught in Chinese finger traps.  Classic.

Ever wonder what a pirate kazoo band sounds like?  Well wonder no more:

It was finally time for cake and presents.  Considering he's six and still learning good manners, Spencer handled it all pretty gracefully.  (Lots of thank yous and no "NO!  This is MY present!")

After that kiddos decided to play outside - for 45 minutes!  I know, I couldn't believe my good fortune.  I had planned on them destroying at least Spencer and Josh's room, if not most of the house.  But instead they just got a little frost bite and sandy outside.  It was great.

In all, I think everyone had a good time.  Lots of noise, lots of messes, lots of "I lost my hook!  Where's my hook?".  Which I'm pretty sure is a universal sign of an excellent party. :)