Overdue Pirate Party

The Pirate Party

We had a Pirate Party for the celebration of Memphis' 4th Birthday. I meant to blog earlier about it, but for whatever reasons didn't get around to it till now.

I really don't know what I would have done without Pinterest. I seriously get lost on it, constantly. I go onto it with the intention of ''just having a quick look'' then an hour and a half later I'm yawning my head off & wondering where the time went.
It was the best place to go for my inspiration for the party. It beat google, and I google EVERYTHING!

Ok so being the start of January it was going to be a hot day. We were loaded up with icy poles, fruit kebabs (which were an absolute treat, & I'm sad I didn't get a picture of these as they looked great) We had hoses and water guns at the ready and by the end of the day all the kids including me looked like drowned rats. But golly it was fun.

I supplied eye patches, and made bandana's for each of Memphis' friends to wear during the party & to take home.

 Setting the scene as guests arrived was our Pirate Flag. As you can see it's pretty big- and a bargain I found off ebay. It's attached to a cardboard roll that hubby got from the carpet shop (for free) and its sitting over a metal star post so as not to fall over and kill someone.

 I also purchased these plastic pirate mugs for the kids to take home, but forget to tell everyone! Doh, well the kids got to use them at least!.

 These 2 Cardboard Pirate ships hubby and I made from bull bar boxes he scored from work for free. Nothing a good ol jigsaw couldn't cut! A bit of paint and Duct tape and we were so stoked with how they turned out!

Memphis all dressed up

The kids playing Cannonball

Now I'd love to take the credit for the creativity of these Pirate swords, but Pinterest was my savior throughout this entire Party. We made these out of the spare cardboard from the bull bar boxes. Hubby cut them out with a jigsaw, I painted the tops on both sides blue, and taped the bottoms with more duct tape (which made them look more real and softer for the kids to hold) then printed out skull pictures and stuck on top. Now in hindsight these probably weren't the safest thing to give to a bunch of 4 year olds. Some kids got a little carried away & lets just say these are quite dangerous! The cardboard was really hard!

Cardboard Swords

 I was really happy with how the goodie bags turned out. I was so torn with how I wanted to do them. I originally bought a template pack and had printed out those cardboard treasure shape boxes. But they were too small, had no handle and were too darn time consuming to cut and tape and glue. So instead I found a free printable , stuck some goodies in a ziplock bag and stapled the printable on top.
They each contained a telescope, chocolate gold coins, a pirate blower, a whistle, a necklace, a pirate wrist slap band (which I have since worn again since the party) pirate tattoos, pirate stickers & a lollypop.

Goodie Bags

Hubby managed to score this old boat for $40. He's pretty set on fixing it up so it can be a ""real boat'' but, I'm fairly confident this is where it will stay :) I bought the steering wheel off an outdoor playground shop on ebay for $39.00.

Pirate Memphis testing out his Boat






I couldn't justify spending $25.00 plus for some cardboard that was going to get smashed by kids with a bat. So I made my own. A simple box (that I cut all the edges apart then taped back together in a few places so that the box wasnt indestructible)I then paper macheed the box. I had 2 packs of tissue paper in my stash which I cut up and stuck on. Then printed out the pirate skull picture for front and back. There was a hole in the middle of the box on both sides (behind the pirate picture) but also a hole in the bottom.

Pirate Pinata

Action  Shot

Here is my attempt at a Pirate ship Cake. I'm not a baker, nor a decorator (that's clear to see:) but Memphis loved it! I made it the night before and was still putting the icing and licorice bits on it as guests were arriving. Again, I can be so organized with some things and others- I leave to the absolute last minute.

I didn't get much time at all for chatting with the other mums and dads, and luckily hubby helped out with bringing out the food. Oh the food, we had so much food and these Jelly Boats I made but forgot to bring out. We spent the next few days eating these :)

Now I believe there has to be some junk at parties. I'm not at all politically correct or new age health freak. No party is complete without some lollies (natural confectionery jellies) potato chips, as mentioned earlier fruit kebabs, icy poles, we also had savory kebabs- these had on them salami, kabana, cheese, and cherry tomatoes. For lunch hubby made pita bread pizza's. We have an electric stone base pizza cooker that we set up on a table outside- ready in just a few shorts minutes. No one really needed pizza, everyone was so full from the rest of the food.

Birthday Banner I made from a Free printable

Honestly, I dont know who had more fun- the kids or me!!! The kids were all so well behaved, they had a blast. It's now already end of April and Im finally blogging about this but guess what? Were already in the midst of planning the next party. It will be a joint party for Fox's 2nd Birthday and Memphis' 5th Birthday. We've got the theme chosen, and decorations planned to beat this party.. Not that there's any competition, and no one we know goes to this extreme for a kids party- but we do it cause it's so much fun. We get to build stuff, we get to be creative, and then on the day we get to be big kids and have fun and enjoy it.

My friends all said to me after this party that I should do kids parties and planning them as a profession. Id love to give it a go, but there's so many other things on my list I cant possibly do it all.