For a few weeks, she went back and forth between a few ideas. I was pushing for an Art Party. I even had the canvases purchased for each child to go home with a masterpiece. She was pushing for firetrucks. She really only cared about the cake. Once upon a time, I made a firetruck cake (shown here) for my oldest son. That was the cake my new seven-year-old had her heart set on. But, this mama didn't feel like making and decorating a cake in the heat of summer. So, I had to divert her attention elsewhere. I had just cleaned out my stamping room, and came across the Pirate party kit from Stampin' Up! that I had been holding onto for years. I showed it to Elise and she LOVED the idea of pirates! Good! So, then instead of making a cake, we did the next best thing... we went to Safeway and ordered a cake.
Here's the party in pictures. I figured that if we were to do all the amazing party ideas I have been pinning on Pinterest over the last few weeks, we would need a 10 hour party, so I opted for 3 games and 3 crafts. There was a 4th craft planned, but we didn't get to it.
We started the party with a treasure hunt. We practiced a few rounds of "Arr, me hearty!" and then I handed each child a loot bag and they got to go in search of their treasure.
Another game we did was "Walk the Plank!" The kids loved this one, and, thankfully, they all stayed away from the nasty piranhas in the ocean below!
Our last game was "Stick the patch on the pirate". One girl said she was the best at this game. I made sure to cover her eyes extra well! But, sure enough, she won! She got some pirate's gold (chocolate) for that!!
Some of the decorations...
And onto the crafts. First off - PARROTS! Everyone knows a pirate needs a parrot. Thanks to Pinterest, I found some pretty cool parrots to make.To check out the source of this craft, click HERE.
Hard at work making a unique parrot.
The Birthday Girl and her parrot friends.
Here's a craft that everyone loved. Shrink art. Stamp in Stazon ink onto the special plastic sheets, colour with chalks and blender pens, or sharpies, and then trim and shrink. I used my Embossing heat tool to shrink them. I didn't let the kids do this part.
The last craft of the day, which ran over our 3 hour time frame, were some quick little boats. I should clarify, they were quick to make, but they weren't quick in the ocean. They took on water, but the kids loved pushing them around in our kiddie pool.
FOOD! When a pirate isn't on his ship, he or she might be on the seashore. Either way, a pirate is always hungry! What better food for pirates than seashells (pasta with white cheese) and octopus (European wieners... cut them in half and then slice 8 legs before putting them into boiling water for a few minutes. These were my favourite part of the meal!). We had different kinds of chips to eat, as well. To drink, the kids got the choice of "Swamp Water" (iced tea) or "Liquid Gold" (orange juice).
The delicious cake from Safeway. It was a white cake and in the middle there were strawberries and custard. On the top is SpongeBob and Patrick and their pirate treasure. It doesn't show in the photo, but inside the treasure box is a white skull ring and gold doubloons!
At bedtime, Elise gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks for a fun party. I really liked all the Pirate stuff we did!" That made it all worthwhile!
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