Pirate Party and lots of fun

I wrote this post the same day of the party but didn't get around to adding pics until now. I have been really enjoying looking at the pictures and this way living the party a bit because we all know that during the party moms are anything but enjoying themselves having to run all over the place and being pulled in every direction. Still I think the party was a success.

Oh my, wasn't this one cool and awesome party? I am EXHAUSTED though. I stressed and worked and planned for a while and with the party today and the clean up I am just plain pooped. But my boy is so worth it. It was also fun doing a themed party and coming up with ideas to make it fun and unique.
We rented my mom and dad's cabana where they live in order to have more space.

For a decoration I wanted to make a boat out of cardboard. I went to a few stores last week and grabbed a bunch of big flattened out boxes and then went right to work. Mom and I started the boat, made the windows and dad came after his nap to help us finish it. It took him a while because he's a perfectionist but it looks beautiful. I had fun painting it. It was a combined effort and I was imagining it would be a great photo op place on top of it being a cool decoration. But the pictures haven't turned out quite like I was imagining. Too dark, or too light and when do five year olds really pose nicely as a group? But who cares, I still have a few cute ones and the memory of this party will stay with me forever and hopefully with Dacian too.

We had Shark's Blood (fruit punch), Fruit Swords (kebabs), little boats made out of peppers and cottage cheese inside with a cheddar cheese piece on a skewer as a sail and Octopuses (hot dogs cut up in fours and microwaved so the legs curled up).
In our rush we didn't really take any pictures of the food.
Of course cake at the end; a pirate ship. (I forgot my black olives which were going to be cannon balls.)
Mom and I made the cake last night but it was starting to fall apart and mom of course came to the rescue  and fixed it and it looked beautiful.

For games we did: pop the cannon aka sit on the balloon till it pops, throw the ball through the window of the boat, musical chairs with cool pirate music going on, and lastly a treasure hunt. (Again I forgot to play pin the eye patch on the skeleton) I gave the kids each a bag to put all their prizes and the treasure finds in there and they took these home as a favor gift.
I really had fun with the treasure hunt we did. I made the clues at the last minute. I loved seeing Dacian and the other kids so excited going from clue to clue.
We ended with opening the presents and then cake.

After that it was free play which the kids seem to enjoy the most. I was gifted these Playhut houses that fold up small for storage from a friend from work and I am glad I brought them here. They're too big for our house but here they were great. I am planning to take them camping this summer.

Present from maie and taie. See the pirates on his bath robe? He's so excited about that. And of course my parents couldn't help themselves and got Lavi a robe as well. She wore it for two days straight.


We got Dacian a Bumblebee Transformer guy-He was over the moon. I love how Lavinia is so curious and is looking so cute there next to Dacian.

Craft table where kids were coloring parrots while waiting for everyone to arrive. My wish was for the kids to color the parrot and for me to tape it to their shirts. (idea from family fun.com and parrot template from there too) Well, most kids didn't really care to color and Dacian who did like it put so much glue on this thing to add colorful feathers that the parrot was a mess by the end and wouldn't stand up straight on his shirt. 

Of course, I also was hoping that the kids would wear their pirate hats (for boys) and pink bandanas (for girls) plus their eye patches. For the most part I got my wish but by the end when I wanted to do the photo op with all the kids at the boat the kids were done with that. They are all still so little and it's to be expected. Adults (ahem..., me) always have different expectations for kids. But now I know to do the photos first thing. If only I could clone myself, one for taking pictures, one for welcoming everyone and tell them what to do, etc. :)

Table decorations
See that parrot? He was supposed to stand up straight. Hahah


Grandpa the master boat maker

Mom, cake master and room decorator and cute piratess

From behind the boat

 

Friends at the party

Pop the cannon. This game was hilarious. I loved how determined the kids were to get those balloons popped. 

Playing musical chairs and other games

Going outside to look for one of the clues for our treasure hunt

Dacian finds the box.

The kids had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt.  They put all their loot and doubloons in red paper bags I gave them. 

Zeke, Dacian's youngest cousin really loved the treasure box.

Gifts came next

With best friend Jared and his brother Zach. The other pics are blurry but I tried to take one with each little guest.

Then cake, should have done cake first but oh well...

 Mom said she could barely move and light the candles the kids were so excited and were all crowding next to her. How fun!

 After cake and presents we opened up our fun tents and let the kids play. This was a huge hit and free play is always good too and thankfully we had plenty of space.

Best friends, D and Jared

Taie and grandson

 We moved the boat outside to get some decent pictures. The rain held out for us. Yipee!

  

After the kids left I hurried out for some pictures outside of the dark cabana.

 Pirate with daddy

 I love his outfit. Mom made the shirt and pants and bought the cute colorful socks.  We made the sword out of newspaper and that was yet another craft all kids were going to do but we ran out of time.