Pirate Iris Treasure 4yr - Puzzle Piece Map

For my daughter's 4th birthday she asked for a pirate party. I made invitations from "old-looking" paper: regular white sheets of paper, torn from all sides, soaked in coffee and dried. My daughter took a huge part in soaking and tearing the paper. Inside it read that "pirates mom and dad buried a treasure chest and pirate Iris wants to find it and invites her pirate friends to help" (it was written in another language and rhymed). Then we scrolled it and tied with a red ribbon.

When the kids arrived they had to create a pirate's best friend - a parrot (the original idea belongs to www.dltk-kids.com): it's made from toilet paper rolls, feathers and paper. They also created telescopes from toilet paper rolls and transparent film. I told the kids that before they start looking for a treasure chest they must be turned into pirates. I prepared several pieces of pirate costumes for them and they had to win these pieces in different games.

First, they had to held a balloon in the air as long as possible only with their heads. For this game they received pirate's hats. Then they had to cross "a bridge over a river with a large crocodile" - a carpet rolled as a log. To my surprise kids were so thrilled with this game, they demanded to "cross the river" several times. For that they received a dagger (a cardboard one wrapped in a foil).

Then we played "musical parcel". When the kids opened each layer, they found an eye band. Then I gave them pirate's crooks (a cardboard crook wrapped in a foil and inserted into a plastic glass). They had to grab a candy necklace with their crooks when they were blindfolded.

Finally, we had a race: jumping over one chair, crawling under another chair, jumping over a rope etc. They got a pirate's mantle made from black trash sacks with white skull and bones and shoe lace for tying. When they all were dress up as pirates, we put their parrots on their shoulders and took pictures. They all looked to cute and real in these pirate costumes! What is a pirate party without a treasure hunt? Well we also had that. I prepared a map and cut it into puzzle pieces.

For each piece I attached a clue. Each clue led to the next one until the kids found all the pieces. Then they had to solve the puzzle (it was very simple) and finally they found the treasure chest filled with their treaty bags.

After that we had a birthday cake. I baked a two-layers cake. The bottom layer was covered with blue icing for a sea and I placed some gummy fish on it. The second layer was covered in green icing for grass and I placed several palm trees on it (pretzel sticks with green gummy leaves). The whole party was a huge success. The kids keep their pirate costumes until today (almost a year after the party!) and they talked a lot about it.

My daughter is having her 5th birthday in 3 weeks. This time she asked for a princess party. One of our last year guests already said that my daughter's birthday party this year "must be so interesting". What a responsibility for me!