ahoy matey!

to be honest, i don't know how many of you are still reading.  i hope there is a handful.  i need help.

tucker is SO EXCITED for his birthday at the end of march.  he wanted a 'bullet cake' and a 'bullet pinata'.  seriously, after the bullet costume at halloween, i'm done with bullets!  so, i talked him into a pirate theme birthday party (with cannons!).  however, i want to do some fun things but am slacking on creativity.  or brain juice.  or something.  he's only having a handful of friends over for his kid party, and then we'll have family over on his actual birthday for dinner.

he loves the new disney show, 'jake and the neverland pirates' and i'm trying to find ways i can incorporate parts of that show in.  i like how they don't have a TON of skulls and that kind of 'pirate' stuff on there. 

i thought i would get his invitations from etsy.  they have some cute pirate ones on there.  i need to get going on that.  i figured i'd give the kids eye patches, a plastic sword and maybe a telescope thing (not sure of the real term right now).  figured i'd play a 'pin the x on the treasure' type game.  i don't know.  i also love cupcakes ... but what can i do that's cool?  put a toothpick that has a pirate flag on it?  maybe some that have '5' on it for tucker?  um ... yeah, i need help!  i want to give him a sweet party he's going to love. 

i'm all over the place here ... but are there any ideas out there? 

Comments

[Melissa]

I love cupcakes! You could make deserted islands for cupcakes. Just frost them, sprinkle them with brown sugar for sand and stick a little palm tree on top. You could even frost a little "X" on each one to mark the spot. You could bake a reeses pb cup in them too for the buried treasure. I like the treasure hunt idea too!

[molly]

Depending on how many kids and how much you want to spend - Lowe's has kids "kits" to build a treasure chest or pirate boat for $5-$7 each. Maybe have the kids come dressed as pirates (to avoid buying the swords, eye patch, etc) and then each kid builds a treasure chest. You fill the chests with toys/candy while they are playing a game...and then everyone goes on a treasure hunt to find their chest?

http://www.lowes.com/pl_Kids+Building+Kits_4294825296_4294937087_

We do the free Lowe's Build & Grow clinics on Saturdays with Kieran and the kits are pretty nice - they aren't a cheap thing that the kids/parents would throw away immediately.

[anne]

Yeah, the gold foil chocolate coins are a good idea! You could stick one 'coin' on top of each cupcake. Cool idea for a party! Ry's turning 4 this year and he's still unaware that he could have a "kid party." Frankly, the idea of throwing a kid party scares me!

[jenny's mom, tucker and levi's gram]

Tucker does enjoy when we play treasure hunt at the house, I think if you make a map of the house and hide special things he would enjoy doing that with his pirate buddies!

[julip]

I had a pirate party for Louie when he was 4. He loved it! I ordered a cake and had it decorated like a treasure map.
http://pelletierfamily.smugmug.com/2009/Summer-09/Louies-Third-Birthday/9247382_tc38j#617430910_kUmWU
I don't know if you get down to Duluth, but the Wm Irvin has a ton of kids pirate themed stuff in the gift shop and it's pretty cheap.
My cousin has an etsy store and made me some cute pirate invites and thank you notes.
send her a message and tell her I told you about them, they were soooo cute!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/emilyanndesigns
as for party favors, I bought some bandanas and made the kids skull caps and bought a big bag of eye patches from Party City or something like that.
We had a treasure hunt and each of the kids got a map to find the treasure.
Lots of fun. Kmart or WalMart has some fun foam swords, which were and still are HUGE around here. We've gone though the pirate thing and are still there....
playmobil has some great pirate island toys that aren't too terribly expensive either. Louie still loves them.
OHHHH, my sister bought a old box and loaded it up with old jewelry, gold coins, dice, etc and voila, it's a treasure chest. e-mail me, I've got a ton of ideas. so much fun!

[Ash-eee!]

Find some of those gold coin choc candies for the gold. Maybe you could do a treasure hunt and find a small 'treasure chest' filled with sweet kid items at the end of the hunt!!!! Maybe pirate hats??? Just a few ideas!!!! No matter what you do I'm sure he will LOVE it!!! Good luck!!!