Pierce's Pirate Party

I'm planning a blow out pirate party for my son's 2nd birthday in August 2010. I'm making this blog as a place to keep all my ideas and share the party.

Agggrrrr..

So why a pirate party?

So why a Pirate party? Well besides the the fact that it's a well loved theme for a kid's party. We have long planned on building a pirate ship playhouse for Pierce in our backyard. We thought it would be great to "debut" the playhouse at his party and so a Pirate party it is.

Here are a few Pirate playhouses I found on the Internet for inspiration.

We bought a how to play house book that has a pirate ship for inspiration. We don't plan on building this actual ship as it isn't as elaborate as we are planing on but it's still great for ideas.

My loot so far

I totally scored at the Dollar tree just before Halloween. They had tons of pirate/skull stuff. I'm not sure how I'm going to use everything but for a dollar who cares.
Sorry about the quality of the pics. I just snapped them real quick with my point and shoot before I realized that the camera had been broken.

We got these on clearance through my husband's work. I paid $2 each. Something I deiced to do after my son's first birthday party is instead of giving away cheap junk as favors to buy less higher quality gifts. These are awesome and the kids should love them.

I think these will be awesome ties for the napkins but we will see.

I only bought a few of these. I think I might use them for the treasure chests rather than for the guest. Maybe spray paint them gold and silver? To look something like the chests at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Hmmm..

5 cups for a dollar. Score. Since I try and buy stuff on clearance long before the party I generally buy for 25 kids. Most likely more than I will need but at these prices worth it.

Loot bags. Again not sure what I will use these for. Maybe the treasure hunt or snacks? Again for $3 it's worth buying now and figuring out later.

Hats. Cute but since I'm planning on getting hats from OT I probably shouldn't have bought these but I didn't think of it at the time. If I don't use these I will pass them on to someone else.

For the treasure chest or hunt.

I've actually gathered tons more since taking these pictures. In fact I'm pretty sure I have most of what I will need for the give away.

A few Pirate party for inspiration

Great party ideas from Erin at the many adventures of Owen and Mason. This is great because it was a 2nd birthday party for the twins so it gives me a great idea of where Pierce will be at his 2nd birthday. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Owen and Mason's 2nd Birthday - - A Pirate Party

On Saturday we threw a great 2nd birthday party for our little pirates. Here's what we did...

I made this door hanger to welcome our guests. It let them know to come on inside since we were all out back and couldn't hear the doorbell. Inspired from polkadots & pirates.

I replaced our garden flag with a Jolly Roger, of course!


And the back yard decorations:



A fun pirate pennant banner for the ropes that hold the patio awning in place.
We did sack lunches for everyone. The kids had a choice of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or jelly only and goldfish crackers. The adults had ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, and a pickle spear. The sandwiches were so delicious. We ordered Sheila Partin's Sweet Sourdough bread. Yum! Each bag was sealed with a cute little sticker that we designed and had printed at zazzle.com. My hubby made the signs for the sandwiches so everyone knew what they were getting.


The awesome cake made by HEB Central Market.

I feel it is important that Owen and Mason know that they are their own person. I will always order them their own little cake so they can feel special blowing out their candles. We also sing them each Happy Birthday separately. The look on their face when they hear just their own name is priceless. They share every other day of the year so why not!


Here is the table set up this year. Last year the kids were to come in swimsuits so the majority of the party was outdoors. It was pretty hot for the rest of us so this year we decided to have a bit more indoor activity. We did not have an 'official' time to sit and eat, in fact, there wasn't even enough table space for every single person. It worked out perfectly though, since some chose to eat earlier (or later) than the majority of the crowd. Tableware was ordered from The Celebration Shoppe. The pirate ship centerpiece is made by Step 2 and was a gift for Owen and Mason from Aunt Lindsay.


The kids even had their own special table.
Here is the banner I made for our fun pirate party. I think it turned out great and I'm leaving it right where it is until Owen and Mason's actual birthday on May 10. Also inspired by polkadots & pirates.
For entertainment, we had a table set up immediately outside our back door. Each little guest was to stop here and transform into a pirate.
Red gable boxes with our personalized stickers from Zazzle included a spyglass and a treasure hunt checklist.
Here are the steps to becoming a pirate. My hubby made the sign.
Our little pirates had their choice of sash and eye patch.
Of course, every pirate needs a hook for a hand. I guess we didn't get a close up of the little pirate hats.
What would a pirate party be if there were no plank to walk? My wonderful husband found some large buckets, drilled holes in the bottom, tied the plank on with a very pirate-y rope, and painted the words.

Here is the activity that went with the treasure hunt checklist found in the red boxes. A kiddie pool draped with burlap and filled with sand and treasure! What a hit!
The treasure that needed hunting was everything from pirate coins, loose jewels, giant gem rings, shiny necklaces, a bouncy pirate ball, and even a crocodile...tick tock, tick tock.

We also had this bean bag toss. I have to admit, it sure was hard to get those bean bags into the holes! There were a couple of activities that didn't get their portrait taken. We had a table set up with pirate tattoos, stick-on jewels, mirrors, and black face paint to paint your own pirate mustache or beard. The tattoos and jewels were a hit but the face painting was not. Oh well. We also had a table set up to design your own treasure map. A large piece of paper that looked old and a sticker sheet with everything needed to make it look map-like. These cool little things were ordered from Oriental Trading.
Since our crowd of kids were too young to follow and actual map and find a treasure, we hung our treasure from our patio awning. Inside was filled with lots of kid-friendly goodies...goldfish, smarties, raisins, fruit chews, and of course, ring pops! What's a pirate without a giant ring pop?
Here are a couple of views of our backyard. Nothing too crazy, but it sure worked out great!


And finally, visit this album for pictures of the party in action!

Party Time

Pirate party inspiration #2

Another great party from Vintage Junky. I love the X marks the spot idea.

By the way these party inspirations are not in any kind of order. Just ideas I have collected from the great wide Internet.


Aarghh! We had a great time!

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments about Baby Hughes' 1st Birthday. I thought I would share some photos with you. Unfortunately, both Mr. Hughes and I were running around trying to get everything finished and trying to capture the most important moments that we didn't get a lot of good photos of the decor. The above photo is a chalk drawing that Mr. Hughes did on our big chalkboard. He always does a different sketch for special occasions.

Yes, yes I made my son wear this ridiculous hat. And, one day he will probably find out that I posted it on here. And he will be mad. Oh well, I am sure I will manage worse through the years. This was actually on his birthday. I sugared him up 2 days in a row.

He started by picking the dots off individually. Then he realized that he had never had this delicious sugar concoction before...then he went to town!

So yummy! He stayed up until 1:30 playing with his toys and sweating off all that sugar. The next day we had his Pirate Party. We had set up most of it the night before, but we still ran around trying to get all of it finished before the early guests came.

X marked the spot instead of balloons. This was one of my favorite decorations.

Baby Hughes' pirate cake. It tasted better than the one the night before. We had the lady that made our wedding cake and groom's cake make it. The treasure chest was his personal cake to smash/eat. We also had mini key lime pies and goldfish chex mix.

The outside table centerpiece with a burlap runner, starfish, wooden swords and (empty!) bottles of rum.

The birthday banner that I blogged about earlier.

We put up sheets under the pergola that we bought from Goodwill for $1 each. It was very hot and sunny, so this was the only way to make it bearable. And, they kind of looked like sails. Mr. Hughes worried that he was going to catch the sails on fire while grilling the Salty Dogs, but thank goodness he didn't!
Our pirate flag!
The treat buckets I got from the Dollar Aisle at Target. I filled them with pirate bubbles, a pirate magnet, a pirate rubber ducky and temporary tattoos. I had wanted to have a temporary tattoo table where the guests all could get one, but we ran out of time.
The only shot I have of his Treasure Chest where the guests put their gifts for Baby Hughes.
The Pirate Punch Bar.
A really neat barrel cooler that we got at a local auction. It is so cool and keeps the ice frozen for a long time. I want to paint it white(but leave the metal dark) now that the party is over, but Mr.Hughes isn't thrilled about that.

The book we gave him the night before. We had all the guests sign it and we will read it to him every year.
I think this was the only time that he wasn't moving or being held by someone. And he doesn't look happy. But, I wanted to show you this cute shirt that I bought on etsy from happyfamily.
And here is the Hughes family blowing out our baby's candle. He wanted to grab it. He hasn't quite grasped blowing yet!
And here is my boy with cake on his forehead. He picked at this one too, but threatened any one who tried to take it away!