Pirate Party!
 

We're having a pirate birthday party for our 6-year-old son. We've had 2 in the past and they were so much fun! We had a treasure hunt, special treasure chest cake, and various games. Does anybody have any great ideas for the party?

my son had a pirate birthday party one year. he got the playmobile pirate ship as a present and i used it as a centerpiece.we got some brown aquarium gravel and used that to simulate sandgravel, placed some of the little pirates on the gravel and had an aqua blue paper tablecloth to simulate water. when the party is over, take off the centerpiece, fold up the corners of the tablecloth and dispose of the tablecloth and the gravel in one fail swoop.

you could invite the attendees to come dressed as pirates. you could award vaious prizes for the costumes-you have to be a bit creative, so that each child gets an award.

favors could be eye patches, gold doubloon chocolate or bubble gum, and a couple of little plastic pirates(like the plastic army men) or little plastic sailboats. you could put a twist on the pin the tail on the donkey game and they could pin the sail on the pirate ship. get a plank of wood, set it on the ground, blindfold the kids and let them walk the plank-a parent or older sibling may have to assist.

you could use the sailboat favors during the party. fill a kiddie swimming pool or a washtub with water and let the partygoers have a sailing contest. they can blow on the sails if the need to.

i always limited the party to about 1 1/2 hours so that i didn't run out of activities. we always had the birthday child greet the guest at the door, receive his/her gift, say thank you and tell the guest that birthday child would be opening the gift after the party. that way none of the guests got their feelings hurt when their gift was not opened first.

the birthday child was assisted in writing thank you notes in which he/she mentioned the specific gift and how much the honoree was enjoying it. gee, you just made me miss those days!! have fun.

We did a pirate party this yr as my 7 yr old LOVES priates. Cannot get him off "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at the park when we go once a month.

I had a pirate cake made, pirate outfit for him, party decorations and a huge treasure chest i rented from a party supply store that i filled with 99cent only store toys and what nots for the party goers as well as "pirate of the caribbean" party bag stuff for them as well.....and of course a jump house and pizza!

Ooo! Good ideas! We had a couple of pirate parties in the nineties for the older girls and were watching the videos to get our son excited. It was funny to see all the future sophisticated sorority women in their pirate garb...the future Phi Mu in a fake beard, the future AKA getting stuck in the pirate tunnel, the future Tri-Sigma scared to tears (whoops!) when we scarily read the clues for the treasure hunt.

*waiting for someone to post that pirate parties are discriminatory/racist/not PC/prejudice....or any combination*

Be creative and come up with something else. A third of your child’s birthdays have been pirate related! Power Rangers, hell ya.

If you do go with the pirate party, give all a bottle of rum. Best six year old party ever.

Au contraire, Texas Beta. If you read what I said, this child has never had a pirate party--he's 6 and our last one was in the nineties. Not to mention that we have 13 children up to age 24 and we've thrown over a hundred birthday parties, only 2 having a pirate theme!

oops.

College has really warped my mind. I find it impossible to think of a party that would be fun for a six year old. When I think of pirates, all I can think of is girls dressed slutty and guys in half assed pirate costumes. Is the kid obsessed with any tv crap that's on? If all else, just get one of those huge air filled bouncing castle things. No matter what the theme, with one of those babies, no one will care if it sucks.

Carnation, ARRG Me Heartys!:)

Fake Mustachhious (SIC),. and do you want Treasures dug up in Your Yard? Kind of like an Eater Egg Hunt with shovels?;)

Do Mexican with Piniata in the Tree or close line!:D

Well, just a thought!:)

Actually yes, I do find pirates offensive.

Did they touch your booty?

Carnation,

Do you know anybody in a place where they celebrate Mardi Gras in a big way with a parade?

Some of the best pirate themed stuff was at Mardi Gras parades, and if you do know people, you might be able to ask them for float decorations, props or costumes to loan you.

(I don't mean anything about parades where people flash floats for beads: some small towns do family friendly stuff.)

ha ha..butt-pirates

Send a message in a bottle as the invitation.
Pin the beak on the parrott
Chocolate coins for party favors
Have a pirate treasure map scavenger hunt?

"send a message in a bottle as the invitation"

yes!! my son was invited to a "survivor themed" party in this manner. they used plastic condiment bottles, such as worchestershire sauce, tabasco sauce and kikkoman soy sauce, to name but a few.

they soaked the labels off the bottles, added a bit of beach sand(which is readily available here), some tiny shells which you could probably find at a hobby/craft store and the invitation. screwed on the lid, taped it shut, added a preaddressed address label and mailed them. it was impressive!!

we are doing Pirates of Penzance at school right now and for the set we made big rocks out of paper mache. cheap and sets the scene... we also are using pirate flages made out of bedsheets in the entry way. Yet again... cheep and sets the scene. how bout having blue jello with gummy worms and such in it too for food?

I wish I could report that the party was a raging success. The decorations were super--we had a huge pirate flag waving from our porch, a talking pirate head on the door, a tunnel that they crawled through to get in the door, you get the idea. The refreshments were great--Blazercheer baked a pirate chest cake spilling over with candy jewels and chocolate coins.

However, this nasty little creep from our son's class came to the party, a kid we didn't know. Teachers require that if you give out invitations at school, you give them to all the kids or at least those of your own sex. I understand this but if I'd known about this kid, I would've found another way to give them out.

He refused to play any games, preferring to run about and destroy decorations. He wouldn't eat cake because he wanted to run balloons through with his sword. We had to abandon the games and merely showed a Garfield pirate movie and then have the treasure hunt because there was no other way to corral him.

My son seems content and is playing with his presents now. However, what could have been a smash hit wasn't and here's a warning to all you mothers of young kids: check out your guest list before you send out invitations. Wish I'd thought to.

That's awful. How embarrassing for his mother that he behaved that way.

I'm sure the other kids had a great time though. They didn't know what they were missing.

Awww Carnation, I'm sorry!

If you haven't already, please send a 'kind' note to that little boy's mother. I will admit that I'm not a parent, but I have had experiences working with children with disabilities and children with behavioral disorders. Some parents are a little 'blind' to how their children behave when they aren't around. While a little note may not really do much, in many cases can serve as a) a warning for how people perceive their child (and really their parenting skills) and/or b) piece of mind for you to know that you could nicely get off your chest that this kid is a terror and not feel so bad when this kid isn't invited next year.

I was once at a party for a darling little girl that I babysat for in college and spotted this little boy's 'girl equivalent'. This child was such a terror she drove the birthday girl to tears multiple times. While I knew it wasn't my business at all, I knew it was really no skin off my back if these parents didn't like me or not; I got their address from the birthday girl's folks (who were really so stunned and upset the mother handed off this girl to her folks and said, 'Please call me tomorrow about how "Brittany" behaved herself today; if she's here any longer I may lose my cool'). I wrote a quick note about what I observed and slipped it in their mailbox on my way home (they apparently only lived about 2 blocks away from the birthday girl). Before Birthday Girl's parents had a chance to attempt to talk to "Brittany's", "Brittany's" mother was on the phone profousely apologizing and offering to take BG's Mom to lunch to mend some fences. Apparently, Brittany was also told to write an apology note to BG (they were both 7 at the time). I know it really gave BG's folks a piece of mind to work this out.

If you didn't really know this kid beforehand, I'm sure you won't care what his parents think of you if they don't receive 'friendly-criticism' well. You don't strike me as the type who would be upset if your son doesn't get to go to the creep's birthday. Sounds like a bad influence.

His stepmother of 8 months-who is 28--was there for a good deal of the party. She kept following him around and asking him to put down the sword, which he wouldn't, and come play the games, which he wouldn't either. Finally she left for awhile. When she returned, she tried to get him to thank our son (nope), put on his shoes (nope), and leave (gave her problems there too). She whispered on the way out that they have joint custody with the ex-wife; she probably wanted us to know that she didn't create this monster.

:eek: We can just see what her future will be like.

Who would have thought that the pirate party report would end up like this?

Was he any better when she wasn't there? Was taking him home just out of the question for her? ::sigh::

Sorry you had to deal with his behavior Carnation, especially when you had put so much time and effort into the party planning.

Carnation,

I'm so sorry that much of the time (and money!) you spent planning for your son's party was ruined. And while, thankfully, your son is happy, it doesn't change what you thought would be some great activities that the others would enjoy. As a fellow party planner, I share your frustration!! But, wow-what a cake!!!

By the by, tomorrow night the two TriDelt's mom and myself are off to the campus to take our girls out to eat, then watch their Video Night dance performances-(I'm still not sure why each sorority's eight minute dance is called "Video Night"-maybe I'll understand after it's over.) We're just glad our girls wanted us to come! (And, of course, get a free meal!)

Carnation-I replied to you via email instead of PM, because I sent you several pictures. So, check yo mail!!

Carnation,
You are so nice! I would have told the little hellion and his stepmom to leave ASAP. I teach so I understand the logic behind inviting everyone. But that doesn't mean that everyone gets to stay. Hope he still had a good birthday!

The boys at my school had a pirate mixer last year and it turned out really well. Fortunately, no booty was stolen!

Step mommy should have been nice enough to take the little SOB out of there and home.

Let his daddy deal with him instead of screwing a fun time for the rest!:mad:

Sorry carnation, sounds oike you did a lot for the party to be a success!:)

obviously daddy doesn't deal with the child, or he would have been better behaved. i would venture a guess that the father and the mother both feel guilty about the divorce and overindulge the boy. poor stepmother is left to try to instill some manners and discipline him when he is with them, but is not backed up by the parents.

too bad that they don't realize that none of the family is actually doing the child a favor by ignoring his horrible behavior. this child will end up not being invited to any parties(and rightfully so).

Carnation, did you say you have 13 children? :eek:

I completely agree with you. In some ways, I feel kinda sorry for the step-mom.

Carnation, my niece's school has the same rule where every kid (or at least every same sex kid) has to get an invitation, so we either drop them off at the houses, or find a way to give them to the parents on the sly outside of school. I think that the school is trying protect uninvited children from embarrassment, but I think there is a better way to do it than imposing that the entire class be invited and then they descend upon your household.

FWIW: that cake sounds BEAUTIFUL that your daughter made! Did you take photos? :D

So yesterday we gave a Star Wars party for another son and it went great! The only thing was that I didn't know my son had told all the other boys to bring their light sabers and there would be saber duels all around. Oh well, there were no kids hurt or sabers broken so all's well that ends well...furthermore, there weren't any mean kids this time.

And--our daughter outdid herself with a cake again--she baked a loooong blue light saber cake! Maybe I can find a way to post a picture.

We're going to Disney World the week of Thanksgiving (along with fifty billion other people), and one of the new things they have now (well, at least since I've been there) is "Build a Light Saber" in DTD, and a new feature in MGM-something about Jedi Knight Training. Should be neat!