Captain Kurtis Pirate 5yr - Peg Leg Race

For our son's 5th Birthday, he chose a Pirate party. He invited 8 guests, and the party was for 2 hours.  We all had a great time!  We announced the theme with the invitations, which were printed from the computer onto cardstock, with pirate themed pictures (a treasure chest, map, pirate, and pirate flag), inviting the mateys to join Captain Kurtis for his pirate birthday party.     

Upon arrival, the children were greeted by "Captain Kurtis", who gave each matey a pirate hat and a treasure box (a gold painted baby wipes box with each child's name hand painted on it).  The children then went outside to decorate their boxes at a table set up with various gemstones (from a craft store), clear drying glue, stickers, stick on earrings, and markers.  After everyone arrived, we gave the children the first piece to the treasure puzzle, which the children put up on the map.  We played Sink the ship and walk the plank with a round kid pool (small size)which had a small amount of water and various size plastic bowls in it. The children took turns throwing small water balloons to try to sink the ship.  Once they sunk a ship, they walked the plank (a piece of wood over the pool, held up by 2 planters). 

After this game, they received the second piece to the treasure puzzle, as well as an eye patch.  Next, they "searched for food" which was a take off on bobbing for apples, where we hung cored apples at the children's height from a wood 2"x4", which we held up securely with a ladder and the side of the house.  The children had to bite the apple with their hands behind their back.  Once everyone was eating their apples, they received the 3rd piece to the treasure puzzle, as well as a sword (made out of cardboard, it was wrapped in foil, with black electrical tape around the handle).  We did a peg leg race, where the children had a 3 legged race (legs tied with black knee-highs).  We set up orange cones at the start & finish lines.  After this game, they received the 4th piece to the treasure puzzle, as well as a compass ring.  The next game was "Sharks and Minnows".  The Birthday boy was the shark and all the guests were minnows.  He was in the middle of the cones, and the minnows "swam" across the "water" to the other set of cones.  Whoever he caught became a shark and we repeated this until everyone was a shark.  After this game, they received the 5th puzzle piece and a telescope. 

Next, we Pinned the X on the treasure.  We ordered this game from a party store, although we could have made it ourselves.  We wrapped a pillow case around the children's heads to blindfold them and they tried to stick their "x" sticker (with their name on it) on the treasure.  After this final game, they received the last puzzle piece to the treasure hunt and a bag of gold coins.    The treasure hunt puzzle was a picture of a scroll (from a computer card program), enlarged to a full sheet of paper.  We printed "The treasure can be found in the closet of the Birthday boy's sister's mother's husband's oldest son".  When making this puzzle we printed one sheet out that had only the scroll and the puzzle lines, plus one that was the same, but also had the directions on it.  As they received each puzzle piece, they glued it in its place on the blank scroll.  We helped them through the clue at the end, and they all went running up to Kurtis closet once they figured it out.  The treasure was the pinata, which my husband hung while we fed the children lunch.   

The children ate hot dogs (pirate ships), with little pirate flags them (a toothpick with a computer printed 2 sided pirate flag glued on it), grapes (cannon balls), and potato chips, and juice boxes.  After lunch we had the cake and ice cream. I made a treasure chest cake (off of the Birthdayexpress website), with 2-13x9"x2" cakes.    We bought a treasure chest pinata and pinata fillers,  which were candy and little toys.  Each child began with one swing, to be sure everyone had a chance.  Then we continued until it broke open.  The children filled their treasure chests with everything they received throughout the day, as well as their pinata items.    We then opened gifts and headed out front to the pirate scarecrow on our bench, where we took a group photo of everyone in their pirate gear to enclose in the thank you notes.  The parents came to pick up their children just as we were finishing taking the pictures. 

For the thank you notes, I used the same pictures as the invitations, but with the front saying "A thank you from Kurtis" and the inside had printed wording thanking the children for joining his pirate adventure, the gift (which the Kurtis had to fill in) and saying he hoped they had as much fun as he did breaking open the treasure and playing his favorite game (sink the ship and walk the plank).     For decorations, we used blue and red streamers and balloons, a computer printed treasure hunt picture with "Ahoy Matey, you have found Captain Kurtis Pirate Birthday party" on the front door,  plastic blue tablecloth (ocean) on the table (3 kids picnic tables put together banquet style), and pirate themed plates and napkins.