Pirate Party 6yr - Cannon Ball Fight

For my son's 6th birthday we had a pirate party. For the invitations I went to a local stationary store and bought pirate themed paper. I printed, Ahoy thar Matey! Stop yer pillaging:lend me yer ear, I have a message fer ye to hear! The treasure's been stolen. It must be found. So tighten yer sashes Skull Island bound! Shiver me timbers, thar's a pirate on board, drinken shark's blood and flainin his sword! I'm Captain (child's name) and will lead thar way, On Date; I turn six that day! Chart ye course fer ADDRESS. We be settin sail at TIME fer some swashbucklin fun, grub and kiddie spirits. Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or hav yer mum send word by yer phone. Sees ye thar! Aarrgh!I bought some plain white envelopes and printed a skeleton pirate on the front.I wrote their address and mailed them. The party was outside in the evening hours. I thought it would make the pirate theme a little more real.I had bought most of my decorations and treats from oriental trading and local party stores.

Decorations: I had a bunch of red, black and white balloons on both sides of the drive way. I had a few tiki torches lining both sides of the driveway and in between I had pirate flags. I had bought a full size pirate flag and hung on our flag pole. I had pirate pennant flags through out the yard on trees and on our privacy fence. My husband had made a pirate ship out of two sheets of plywood. It looked like a ship with windows in it. He used black and brown spray paint to paint it. I had 6ft tables out for eating and used black and red table cloths for them. I had a small round table with a black table cloth and took a red one and cut it in half and draped it over the black table cloth. On this table I had laid out a pirate treasure map(local dollar store)and on top of this a small skeleton head sitting on the corner of it. Behind the map I had an 8x10 picture of my son in his pirate costume. Leaned up against the frame I had a telescope. On the other side of the map I had a treasure chest with beads, coins and various treats(toys). I had scattered some plastic gold coins around the table. Hidden behind the chest and frame I had the cd player playing a pirate cd. Under the table I had hidden the treasure. Next to the table I had sitting a skelton in a chair with a sign that said "Dead men tell no tales" I had a red skull cap on the skeleton, an eye patch, a gold hoop earring, a ring on his finger, a plastic pirate gun in the other hand and some beads around his neck. On the floor by the chair I put a trunk that I put the goodie bags in. ( I personnally had a small trunk sitting around the house).I had a small card table with a red table cloth and some gold coins spread around on the table. It was for the gifts. I also had a rocking ghair sitting next to it for the birthday boy to sit in and open presents.

The food table had a black table cloth. On this table I put the 2 liter drinks in one corner with the cups in front. Then I had a red plastic bowl with Buried treasure snack mix, The chips, another red bowl with pirate fruit snacks, black and red plates, a red silverware/napkin holder with black and white forks and spoons and black napkins. I put a few of my sons pirate figures standing through out the table. In front of the chips we put a tray of hot dogs when they were done. In the hot dogs I put a skewer with parchment paper and called them scavenger dogs. The table was pretty full with food and condiments.On both sides of the food table I had put bunches of balloons, red, black, and white and a big Pirate mylar baloon in the middle. My sister had made a few signs to hang through out the party area. Beware, Pirates! She drew a picture of a skull with an eye patch and skull cap. On the door entering into the house she made a sign that said "Enter at ye own risk" Around that she drew a picture of an island with a treasure chest and a skull face, palm tress etc. and put skull island towards the bottum. Inside on the bathroom door I put a sign that said "Lil Pirates Room" with a picture of a pirate.

When the guest arrived they got a bandana, eye patch and I was putting on tattoos. They all loved seeing each other dressed like that. I really didn't think they would wear the eye patches. While I was finishing the tattoos they found the swords and begun to chase each other and act like pirates. They were having a blast before the games even started. By the time I ended the tattoos the scavenger dogs were done and we ate. Scavenger dogs, chips, buried treasure snack mix(mini pretzel, m&m's, cinnamon crispix, honey teddy grahams & goldfish), pirate fruit snacks. Tigers blood to drink; sprite with frozen hawaiin punch ice cubes. I had other drinks for the adults but they were enjoying the tigers blood. Then we started the games:Walk the plank, we took two black milk crates and put one on each side of a kiddie pool and laid a piece of wood over the kiddie pool and it rested on the milk crates. In the pool we put flooting sharks and alligators. The kids would walk the plank and then go to the treasure chest by the sitting skeleton and get a treat.

Then we had a Cannon ball fight, I made one hundred black balls, I spray painted styro foam balls black and crumbled newspaper into a ball and wrapped black electrical tape around it. We seperated the ship into two pieces and had them facing each other. We divided the kids into two teams and put each team behind one half of the ship. We had some dads behind each half to help pick up the balls. The object was to see which team could get the most balls through the windows. They had so much fun throwing the balls at each other that they didn't care about the objective. The dads ended up in the cannon ball fight also. They didn't want the cannonball fight to end. After the cannonball fight we did a treasure hunt.

While the kids were having a cannonball fight one of my friends put the clues out. Clue #1 was put on the table with the CD player. Clue #1 Attention all Pirates, we've stolen your loot. It's time for a treasure hunt, we're sure you'll have a hoot. Here is your 1st clue: If you were real pirate's, you'd sail the seven seas, for your transportation you'd need one of these she had put a boat in the kiddie pool, were they walked the plank and the clue was inside the boat. Clue #2 A Pirates hut not need be grand, just as long as it sits on land I had my sons tent sitting out in the yard. Clue #3 A message in a bottle was a great way to send a letter, you pirates today got it much better (the mailbox) Clue #4 We pirates need to stay warm when the weather gets cold, we like to light a fire in a big black bowl (fire pit) we had it sitting in the sitting area where some of the parents were sitting. Clue #5  When pirates need a rest this is where they sit, they rock back and forth and snooze a bit (a rocking chair) It called for a hammock but we didn't have one. It was sitting next to the gift table. Clue #6 Now that you've searched high and low and had lots of fun, go back to the place were you begun. The treasure was with you all along, right under your noses, under the song!!! Under the table next to the sitting skeleton was a big red X and a pinata sitting under it. The kids were all excited. I took brown lunch bags and wrote Pirate Loot on them and decorated them with some pirate stickers. Gave each child one to put there pinate loot in. We had a pirate pinate filled with Candy.

After the treasure hunt which the kids enjoyed we sang happy birthday and ate cake and ice cream. The cake I got at a local bakery and they decorated it really cute with pirate figurines on an island. Then we opened presents and handed out goodie bags: Pirate pencil, tattoo, pirate ring, pirate sticker, and a telescope. They also got a sword and got to keep the bandana and eye patch they recieved at the start of the party. Its been two weeks and the kids and moms are still talking about how much fun they had. The moms stated how the kids went to bed right when they got home.