Jack's Pirate Party with Friends

I had SO MUCH FUN with this party (and Jack did too, of course!).  Looking back, I realize that there are several things that contributed to my excitement: Jack was not able to have a "friend party" last year due to COVID being in full-swing so I think that I subconsciously wanted to make up for that this year; planning a 'boy party' requires me to step outside of my comfort zone -- away from arts and crafts and frilly decorations; finally, being that his birthday is in May (a warmer month than any of the other kids' birthdays) allowed me to plan the decor and activities outside of the house instead of inside where I would normally set-up.

Jack invited three close friends on the Saturday after his birthday to come to our house from 4:00 - 7:00 pm.  He wanted pizza and breadsticks for dinner (Steve picked it up locally) and I filled a cooler with water and gatorade and made sure to have ice cream and cupcakes for dessert.  

We cleaned up the garage and I hung decorations to give the feel of being on a real pirate ship.  The mast behind the table was constructed with some random PVC pipe that we already had.  Then Sophia and I spray-painted it one afternoon to look more authentic.  I ripped up an old white pillowcase to simulate torn sails and draped some left-over netting from Jimmy's Fish Party last year.  The pirate in the background was affectionally named "Peg Man Pete" and continues to hang in the garage.

The pinata that I made earlier in the week was sitting (filled!) on the table for later on in the party.

A few more pirate banners and a special table set up for the guests completed the look.

My FAVORITE part of the party was the Buried Treasure Hunt and I am pretty sure that the boys are still continuing to talk about it and how fun it was!  

I typed and printed out 16 clues -- with the first one stuffed in a bottle on the table.  I made the clues look more realistic by burning the edges and dirtying them with chalk.  Then, right before the party, the girls helped me to hide the clues outside, all around the house.  Each clue was to be read out loud and it would lead the boys to a location where there would they would find yet another clue.

Jack read the first one out loud to everyone.

This took a bit of planning on my part to make sure that the clues took them from the front yard to the back yard and all around -- tiring them out a bit.

One of the clues was buried in the sandbox and kudos to Sophia who did an excellent job burying it because the boys had to work pretty hard to find that one.

In fact, the boys split up because they weren't sure which sandbox the clue was buried in.  Ha!

Eventually, after much running around and a lot of laughing, they found Clue 16:  "Now head to the ship down by the lake.  The treasure map is there and yours to take."

Now here is where the real excitement began.  Down at the park (where the beach and lake are), there is a big ship that the kids can play on.  Right before the party, Steve had gone down there to put the rolled up treasure map in the ship AND to bury the treasure chest in the sand.  Given that the party was on a Saturday, we knew that there would likely be neighborhood kids playing down there and didn't want to risk them finding all of this before the boys were able to so we had to wait until the very last minute.

The treasure map of the park area that I made, complete with pictures and names.  My favorites are probably "Peg Man Pete's Potty" (the porta-john) and the "Ancient Parrot Graveyard" (the Pavilion).

We drove the boys down to the park on the golf cart and packed a few shovels, just in case.  It took the boys a few minutes to actually find the map in the ship, but they eventually did.

And then they set off reading the map and following the red dashed line that would ultimately lead them to the treasure.

"X marks the spot" -- right in the center of the volleyball court ("Treasure Island").

It was so hot that day and of course, the treasure chest was filled with a lot of chocolate candy.  To ensure that it didn't melt, we wrapped the chest with saran wrap, buried it deep in the sand (where it was cooler) and only buried it a few minutes before the party.

Side story: There is a little boy (Noah, about 6 years old) whose grandparents live in the neighborhood and he was down at the park when Steve was burying the treasure.  He watched, so he knew exactly where it was and was just dying to know what was inside.  The boys were planning to take the chest back to the house and then open it up but that would mean that Noah would never know what was in it.  Upon seeing how upset Noah was, they opted to open it up down at the park in front of Noah AND they also shared some of the booty with him.  

Equally dividing their loot:

These are the drawstring bags that I had printed for the boys to put all of their candy in:

After the Treasure Hunt, we had dinner and then Jack opened his presents.

The weather, while it was a tad hot for the middle of May, was beautiful.  I was nervous that there might be rain in the forecast and was mentally planning for Option B, but we really lucked out and there wasn't a drop in the sky that day.

From there, we grabbed the pinata and a small bat from the side table and hung it from a tree out front using a long rope.  Sophia volunteered to be in charge of the rope.

This boy desperately needed a haircut but I allowed him to keep it long on the top for a little while at his insistence.  As a mom, I have learned to pick my battles.  But, I am pretty sure that he will one day look back on these pictures and wonder why I didn't get him a (long overdue) haircut.

Jimmy had fallen asleep inside and missed the big Treasure Hunt, but he woke up in enough time to be able to join in on the pinata fun.

Perfect form!

Last but not least, cupcakes and ice cream with the Birthday Boy:

Making a wish!

Jack's 8th Birthday - Party Prep and Day Celebration

We celebrated Jack's 8th birthday with a full-blown pirate theme this year.  I casually mentioned the concept to him earlier in the Spring and he was open and accepting to the idea.  I wanted to make it fun for a boy his age, and for the three friends that he invited ... without being too childish.  (As the kids are getting older, I am having to transition from what I used to do with crafts and games and make the parties a little more mature and sophisticated.  It's also a little trickier to do "boy" parties than "girl" parties, which I have done a lot of in the past).

In order to let Jack be as surprised as possible, Jimmy helped me with a lot of the early party prep leading up to the big event.  He helped me wrap silverware and then I tied a pirate charm onto some of them.  The galvanized silverware holder has been a well-used party accessory over the years.

I chose to make my own pinata for the party -- partly because the cost of one was so expensive and also because I planned to keep the design simple: a rectangular pirate flag that I could construct using a box and some tissue paper.  Jimmy helped add all of the candy and goodies ahead of time.  And of course, he was rewarded for his hard work with one of the pieces of candy.

The biggest (and best!) part of the party was a treasure hunt.  But first, I needed to have some sort of "treasure."  The treasure chest was Sam's from Christmas years ago and then I filled it with chocolate gold coins, chocolate gold bricks, chocolate nuggets, million dollar chocolate bills, ring pops (jewels) and special locks and keys.

I found these locks and keys on amazon and they were the perfect addition to the chest.  What little boy doesn't love the idea of a lock and key to keep his most prized possessions locked up?!  I tied the key on to make sure that they did not get lost in the chest ...

Such a cool idea for "money"  in the treasure chest.

Filled up and ready to be buried:

  

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On the day of his actual birthday, we gave Jack gifts from the family -- of course, they were all wrapped up with the pirate theme in mind.  I already had the gold tablecloth in my party supplies closet and then I just used red, black and white wrapping materials that I had on hand.

We made sure to sing 'happy birthday' with cinnamon rolls to start out the day ...

And then, because his birthday was on a Monday, he had to wait until after school to open his presents.  It really wasn't that long though because the kids are still doing "half days" due to the pandemic, so he opened his gifts from us after lunch.

We had pizza for dinner (the birthday boy's choice) and brownies for dessert.

You can see the pinata that I made for his friend party in the background.  It turned out pretty great and the hanger that I opted to use (taken from Sophia's closet) was padded and durable, making it pretty indestructible for when the boys went at it with a stick.

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