Pirate Girl Party 6yr - Photo with Pirate Lady

6 year old girl pirate party  After visiting Walt Disney World Pirates of the Caribbean and seeing the movie of the same name several times, my daughter decided that she wanted a pirate theme for her 6th birthday.  The party had to be not too scary and needed to appeal to both girls & boys (we had 7 girls & 4 boys at the party ranging in age from 4 to 8). 

Initiations:  Downloaded pirate map invitation from www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com and used this as watermark; used red ink in Monotype Corsiva type for the wording Ahoy There Matey!! Captain XXX is turn’ six!  A piratey birthday bash is what’s in store. She needs a hearty crew to help ‘er search for long lost treasures. Come if ye dare, but please beware, there’ll be lots of swashbuckling fun, grub and yo ho ho games. Ye be invited to set sail on Saturday, September 25 from 1:30 to 4:30. XXX’s ship will be docked at XXXX (home address). Wave yer flag if ye be attendin (call First Mates at XXX-XXXX).  Wear ye best piratey get-up!  Printed this on white paper, cut out the printed area and then pasted onto brown/beige kid’s craft paper which had been ripped along edges & blotted with charcoal chalk (I tried burning the edges as others have suggested but really wasn’t successful at this the charcoal gave the look of a burnt edge).  I then rolled the invitations, tied them with twine and threaded name tags onto each invitation.  Best of all, my soon to be 6 year old helped with each step.

Decorations:  I created a Pirate lady (used 2 pantyhose stuffed with newspaper for the arms/torso/legs, baseball bat for spine, brown paper bag for head, gloves for hands & old boots on feet) and dressed her in red/white stripped skirt (I sewed ones for the lady, myself & my daughter to wear), an old torn white shirt, red bandana & sash, lots of jewels/beads and a parrot on her shoulder.  We sat her in a rocking chair on our front porch which was also decorated with large jolly roger flags, spider webs and a Beware of Pirates sign. 

Most of the kids were captivated and agreed to have their photos taken with her. Inside we decorated with treasure chest happy birthday banner, balloons & signs as well as black & red balloons and streamers. We (my soon to be 6 year old & I) made a treasure chest (card board box wrapped in gold paper and decorated with keep out sign, key hole & handles printed from www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates/mtreasure.html ) and put it on the entrance table along with shells, gold chocolate coins, necklaces & rings (the kids loot bags were in this chest to be discovered later). Some of the kids came dressed as pirates while other put on beads, red/white bandanas, red sashes and eye patches that we provided. 

Activites:  As kids arrived they were invited to decorate a treasure chest with beads & ribbons (purchased through www.orientaltrading.com that I had previously spray painted gold). Some of the younger children needed a lot of help with this project; a few of the kids continued working on their chests at the end of the party.  Because her birthday is at the end of September (and we live in rainy BC, Canada) I had prepared all the games to be played inside if necessary but the day turned out to be sunny & warm. 

First we played musical islands. I cut island shapes from green cardboard paper and numbered each island. Each child had an island. As the music played (I borrowed CDs with piratey kids songs from the local library & recorded them on a tape) the kids walked from one island to the next when the music stopped the Captain (aka the birthday girl) pulled a number from a hat and the person standing on that numbered island was banished. The last person standing on an island got a small prize. The kids loved this game & insisted that we play it several times. (This is a much less aggressive version of musical chairs.)

As kids were banished from their island, they were invited to play at other stations:  balloon sword fights (what would a pirate party be without swords but no one was hurt with this type); face painting & tattooing; cannon ball toss (balled up newspaper wrapped with masking tape for cannons that were tossed over a ship I had made from cardboard & tied to a laundry basket), stick the pirate on the treasure map (same idea as pin the tail on the donkey); and walk the plank (I used an 8 foot long board place flat on the ground but this was too easy for most kids a raised & longer plank would have been more of a challenge).  After an hour of playing games, we came back inside for snacks and the cake.

Food:  I cut up a variety of fruit and speared them with sword shaped toothpicks, made jello boats (halved 8 oranges and scooped the pulp out of each, filled each half with jewel colored jello and when the jello set, cut each section into half again) and toasted cheese buns (with small flags held up by toothpicks). A friend made a girl pirate cake that the kids ate after XXX opened her presents.

Treasure Hunt:  While the kids were busy eating cake, I hid the treasure chest filled with their loot bags and six clues guiding them on the hunt. The clues were modified nursery rhymes (e.g. the old man is snoring = her dads side of the bed).  The older kids (eight year olds) took turns reading the clues. My daughter later told me that the hunt was fun but that the clues were too easy! The loot bags included a small compass, gold colored pencil, stickers, chocolate coins, skull lollypops and rings & bracelets for the girls and water pistols for the boys. The party lasted 3 hours and went smoothly because there were lots of helpers (my teenage niece & nephew were enlisted and 3 parents stayed). All of the kids had a great time, even one girl who at the beginning of the party announced that she didn’t like pirates.