Crew's Pirate Pool Party

There was one week between spring break and Easter and Crew's birthday fell within that week. It was basically a nonstop party. Crew had his heart set on having a pirate pool party months before his big day. He was a pirate for Halloween and his love for all things pirate did not fade by April.

Blake had a pirate party when he turned six so it was a theme we were familiar with. Add in the pool factor and hosting it was a breeze. 

Crew talked to anyone and everyone for weeks about his upcoming pirate pool party. On the morning of his birthday, as we were making the final preparations for the party, he all of sudden realized, "Wait a minute, we don't have a pool!" I love that our lack of pool never dawned on him before that moment. Thankfully we saved the day and hopped on over to one of the 13 pools in our town, which happened to be deserted.

I'm all about simplifying the food for parties so we picked up pizza and added a few snacks and called it good. 

Crew preferred brownies over cake and I was just fine with that.

I made a few games that could be played throughout the party in an unorganized manner. I knew swimming would be the main event.

Our neighbors brought Crew an inflatable shark as his birthday present and it was the perfect gift.

Lots of pirate sword fights went on in the pool.

It was tricky to keep Crew's candles lit.

But he blew them out anyway.

Crew couldn't have been happier surrounded by friends, water and especially that shark. 

His birthday party certainly lived up to the hype.

Pirate Party - Part Three

The final post of the pirate party series is all about the fun that was had.

If I had one gripe about winter birthdays, it would be that nothing can take place outside (okay, I have lots of gripes about birthdays that fall near Christmas). 

But we made do with the space we had (and poor lighting for that matter). And I don't think the kids minded being confined one bit; birthday parties bring out all sorts of energy regardless of the setting.

I set up a mini photo booth with all sorts of pirate accessories. Each guest got to take home a bandana and eye patch in his or her treasure bag and pose with additional props.

Since the female guests outnumbered the male guests, I made sure to be well stocked in pink bandanas.

I couldn't resist letting Crew join in on the fun.

The female guests were especially enthralled with Crew.

I think it's safe to say that Blake's first official birthday party was a success. That is some pure glee on his face.

Pirate Party - Part Two

Blake's pirate party was both a first time birthday celebration for him and for his master planner, a.k.a. me. (Part one is here.) I was worried about entertaining 14 young children for two hours, so I planned lots of activities to keep them occupied.

First off was cookie decorating. Originally, I thought I'd have my cookie queen friend make beautiful ships and pirate faces to add to the display table. But she came up with the idea of having the kids decorate their own treasure maps on cookies. As hard as it was to pass on her cookie masterpieces, I agreed that allowing each child to paint his or her own treasure map would be a perfect activity.

Each child received an edible paint palate, a blank treasure map cookie and a paintbrush.

I set out the cookies on treasure map placemats to give the kids some ideas about what to paint.

It was so much fun to see how unique each cookie turned out. And after they added their dashed treasure map lines that led to the X, they loved being able to eat their masterpieces. Blake actually took little nibbles around the edges for days because he didn't want to destroy his hard work.

We had a cannonball launch where Troy bounced ping pong balls and the kids tried to catch them in buckets.

And what would a pirate party be without a plank to walk? 

Blake helped me paint on all the letters.

I hid clues all over the house for our treasure hunt. The kids became master riddle solvers as they figured out where each clue was hidden.

Finally, they found the final clue that led them to the treasure chest.

Each child received a treasure bag filled with Pirate's Booty, stickers and a skull and crossbones hand stamper.

But there was one more thing they had to add to their loot. Gold doubloons, of course. Blake's birthday tradition is to pop balloons with darts. Usually I fill the balloons with candy, however, it seemed fitting to fill the balloons with gold coins for the pirate party.

Throwing those darts and watching the balloons explode and send gold coins flying everywhere was a definite highlight of the party.