Ahoy Mateys. The pirates are coming! For Wyatt's 5th Birthday Party, we decided on a pirate theme. I booked his party at a hip local pizza joint that had a large private room perfect to corral 20 kids. (Besides, I usually need a glass of wine at these things to calm my nerves.)
For the invitations, I presented them in a message in a bottle. You can google it and find tons of options, but I used The Original In A Message Bottle Shop and ordered their do it yourself bottles with shells. I printed the invites on vellum paper because it's easier to roll up. One tip- roll the paper around a #2 pencil for the perfect size. Use a piece of twine to hold the roll in place.
When the kids arrived at the party my husband and I greeted them in full costume and had them each dress in pirate gear! We had gold beads, eye patches, sashes, hats and personalized shirts for each child. (I saved the swords until the end to prevent dueling!) I got the beads, patches, hats and swords from both Birthday Direct and Oriental Trading. The T-shirts are simple white Hanes from Target. I cut the neck in a vee and cut both the sleeves and bottom hem to make them look ragged. I used Iron-On T-shirt transfers from Target to personalize each shirt.
I invited both boys and girls and I wanted the party to suit both so I chose red, pink and black for the theme colors. Last year, Wyatt had a Batman themed party and one mom, (my nemesis- there's one every year) complained I made Batman costumes for the girls. She suggested I should have made Wonder Woman for girls like her 6 year old daughter who WASN'T EVEN INVITED, but showed up with her little brother. Anyway, I found super cute plates, napkins and supplies at Birthday Direct...
For the cupcakes, I carried over the pink and red theme. I used my standard Trader Joe's box of cake mix, Wilton's ready-to-use colored fondant and Wilton's FoodWriter. I used my go-to garlic salt top to cut the circles for the faces from skin colored fondant. I finished them off with red and pink head scarves and a black food writer for the patch. I always make a separate "smash" cake for the birthday boy and I used extra fondant for Wyatt's cake.
For entertainment during the party, I had the kids decorate treasure chests from Oriental Trading with pirate stickers, foamies and jewels. When they were decorated to my satisfaction, I presented them with a bag of gold coins and jewels. I also hired a "real" pirate entertainer to perform magic tricks and make balloon swords.
As the kids left, I FINALLY let them have the swords and gave them a simple goody bag complete with a treasure map, telescope, stickers and tattoos. Luckily no one had to walk the plank!
