Pirate Party 4yr - Pirate Boat Craft

For my son's 4th birthday party we did a Pirate Party, Arrrggghh!  For the invites I took clear glass soda bottles, cleaned them out, took labels off and added sand from the craft store inside with small shells and rolled up paper invites and stuck them inside - like a message in a bottle. Around the neck of the bottle was a round tag that had the guests name on tied with twine. The rolled up paper inside was the invitation and looked like an aged map on one side and had all the info on the backside. On the back it read:  Aye Ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captain (NAME) Buccaneer Bash! Chart yer couse fer (address) on (date) We be meetin' at (time) fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits. Wave yer flag if ye be attendin' or have yer mum send message by phone at (#) See ye there ye scurvy dog! Aarrgh!  We hand delivered the invites.

When the guests arrived they were greeted at the door with Pirate music from Pirate's of the Carribean and there were signs I made from black construction paper and white paint that read : Beware of Pirates" and "Knock if ye dare" that lined our entryway. Once they entered they were given a nametag with their new name a pirate name on it. The adults and babies got them too just for fun! I got this idea from a few pirate name generated web sites. I just searched on the computer - pirate names and all the info came up.  The little pirates had to walk the plank first. It was just a 2x4 that we stuck on the seats of two chairs outside in our backyard. We spotted them across of course. Once they walked the plank they were to dig into the treasure box which was a styrofoam cooler I spray painted and glued shells and jewels and find their pirate costumes : A hook sword hat eye patch vest belt. Then they went to get their mustaches (face painting table).  This was so much fun because they all had painted mustaches beards gotees. They looked great and were really in to their pirate characters. 

Outside I created a couple of stations.  Art was one : we made Pirate boats with plastic banana split containers I got from a local ice cream store and we took playdough and stuck it in the bottom of the "boat" in a mound then took a straw for the pole that would hold a piece of construction paper cut out in a triangle shape. I had stickers markers etc out for them to decorate.  Another station was digging for gold : I had a wheelbarrow with water in it (not too much) and at the bottom were rocks and pebbles that I collected around my yard and spray painted gold that they could mine with a metal pie pan.  Another station was digging for treasure: I had a blue tarp stretched out across the yard with a blow up palm tree in one corner. Under the palm tree I made an Island with a bunch of play sand. In the play sand was chocolate coins fake jewels and sea shells that I got at my local craft store beaded necklaces. I had shovels out for them to dig their treasures up with.  Another station I had also on the blue tarp was : my shoot the ship game. I made a pirate ship out of a large cardboard box. I spraypainted it black and cut out holes on the sides to put papertowel/tp cardboard rolls inside for the cannons. I also made with a wooden dowel a flagpole with a pirate flag on it. I took a few plastic balls and spray painted them black to make the cannon balls. The guests were to try to stand on the "land" the grass and "shoot" the cannons at the ship trying to make the balls in to the box. That was fun the kids really liked that one.

Well now it's time for cake so the kids all went inside to see the Treasure box cake. This was so much fun to make. I made two regular 9x13 chocolate cakes and put them on top of eachother. I propped up the top one with sticks and candy.I frosted it with chocolate and used fruit by the foot for the straps on top and cut out shapes for the key hole. I used m&ms to line the fruit by the foot to look like bolts and then I stuffed rolos chocolate coins candy necklaces etc. inside the opening of the cake to make it look like treasure was spilling out. It looked amazing. I even had candy rings! I also served blue jello cups that I made to represent the ocean and stuck inside the jello were gummi fishes. Those turned out really great!  So now the guests are eating cake but not at a table On a ship!!! We converted our rectangular fold out table into a Pirate ship outside. We took a black tablecloth and laid it down on the table then down the center I placed fish nets and sea shells. Taped to the front was a steering wheel that I painted SS(name). On top of the table were three wooden dowels each placed inside a  styrafoam disk you can find at your local craft store. I glued them down inside the middle. To make the masts that will go on these wooden dowels I took white fabric and cut out three mast shapes how big is up to you. I then took my 3 fabric masts and attached them to some smaller wooden dowels with hot glue. One small dowel on the top and one small dowel for the bottom to hold the fabric out like a mast. To attach the 3 masts on to the 3 upright wooden dowels that I stuck inside the styrafoam disks I used twine and tied them on and we have a ship! 

After we served the treasure cake we opened up gifts and had all our little pirates hunt for their treasure bags. I hid them around our yard. They had so much fun looking for their loot! Inside their loot bags I put pirate stickers shark gummy snacks gold chocolate coins a pirate looking glass and they all got to take home their pirate boats they made plus all their costumes! All in all the little pirates had such a swashbuckling time! My friends tell me that their kids still talk about my son's party and love to play with their invitations. I think it was quite a success!!"