Pirates of Caribbean 7yr - Mad Eye Mom

Our 7 year old really wanted a "Pirates of the Carribean" party - so we did for his 7th birthday. We did some research at the library and found some great books on pirates. One had a name chart that you could pick a name from each of three columns to make up your pirate name (ex: Hook Leg Bob, mine was Mad Eye Mom). Each kid got a name tag to write their new name on (Hello, My Name is: Black Beard Bonnie)

They each came dressed in costume, but had to pass the "pirate test" before they earned their eye patch and sword and head scarf (from Oriental Trading Co). We had a 2X10 for a plank to walk (up on one brick on both ends), rigging to climb (our treehouse has rope ladder-type rigging to get up into it), a shark lagoon to swing over (inflated pool with 5 inches of water in it and plastic sharks floating around)on a rope swing and a yardarm to haul up (plastic bucket on a rope to haul up into the treehouse platform). They decorated plastic pencil boxes(5 for a dollar at Wal mart) with jewels to hold their booty from the treasure hunt.

Each clue was written in "Pirate talk" (Ahoy, me hearties! Will ye be helping me look for buried treasure?  Shiver me timbers! I just saw a ghost ship! All you seadogs! Don't be an old codger! Climb the rigging and look near the Jolly Roger! We floated one bottle in the shark lagoon: Man overboard in Shark Lagoon! Find the bottle or meet your doom!) and rolled up and placed in plastic bottles around the yard and in the tree house. They worked as a team together as each took turns reading out the clue to the rest of the team.

The last clue had the treasure map rolled up with a giant "X" marking the spot where the treasure was buried. We put tennis balls(cannon balls) plastic necklaces (Oriental Trading), foil wrapped gum coins, plastic coins and peppermint patties in an old metal tool box and buried it about 6 inches down with two small shovels in an "X" over the top of the dirt. They had a blast digging and were really surprised when the shovels hit metal! You should have seen their eyes as the lid was opened up and the jewels and stuff was snatched up.

They had learned earlier that pirates divy up their loot evenly, so they made sure everyone got their share. I wore a striped shirt with a stuffed parrot sewed to one shoulder and pirate jewelry and cut off black pants (bit by a shark). The kids flew parrot gliders off the tree house platform and had the most fun with the shark lagoon (swinging over it with their plastic swords in their mouths). Luckily, it was a very hot day and the water felt great. We had a big drink cooler filled with red sport aid (blood)to quench thirsty pirates and the cake was in the shape of a pirate ship with the candles sticking out the sides from the cannons. (From the family fun magazine recipe).

We made Jolly Roger flags (cut out jolly roger skull and crossbones from paper and glued onto black fabric) to fly from the tree house platform and my husband made sails from two old white sheets tied to poles on either side of the tree house platform. I took a picture of each of the pirates as the birthday boy opened his presents and sent them as thank-you postcards to the kids. They had a great time on a hot day! The next weekend our family dressed up as pirates and went to see "Pirates of the Carribean" and I must say I think our party was much more fun!`