A Party, Me Hearties

As previously mentioned, the boys turned 5 on November 26th. I decided that this year I was going to get it together and throw them an honest-to-goodness party: friends, games, favors, decorations, presents, the whole thing. I'm sure my experience was compounded by the fact that this particular party took place in the midst of the holiday season which is a busy time in general, but planning it gave me a bad case PPSD: Party Planning Stress Disorder.
First, there was a theme to consider. The boys made that easy, they both wanted a pirate party. Done. So, I googled pirate party ideas. Don't do it. That way lies madness. You may find yourself, as I did, gaping open mouthed at blog after blog of elaborate ideas illustrated in gorgeous full-detail photographs. Now, there is nothing wrong with really awesome parties and mothers who throw them except for the fact that I knew, deep down, that I was not one of those mothers. I felt the guilt and panic rising as I researched each aspect of throwing a party. Didn't my boys deserve to deliver indivualized ship-in-a-bottle invitations to each party guest? Were other mothers expecting to receive a detailed treasure map complete with burned edges and other aging techniques with clues that would help them find the pertinent party information hidden in the map itself? Was I a bad mother because the invitation ideas alone made me feel weak in the knees and gave me the strong urge to throw my hands up in surrender before I had even begun?
Luckily, I pulled myself together, muttered "aargh", ate an orange to stave off scurvy and decided to forge ahead. I found some great (and free!) invitations online and had the boys make home-made envelopes with piratical drawings on them which we hand-delivered to their friends.

They talked me into inviting 9 friends total. I feel a little bit guilty confessing some relief when only 7 could come. That still made 11 little people running around our house, which was plenty.

The party lasted 2 hours which meant we had 8 activities plus time to eat the cupcakes and open presents. I wish I had taken pictures of each of the activities before they were either destroyed or taken down if only to encourage other moms who may not have it in them to throw an immaculate party. Things were definitely homespun but the kids didn't care at all.  I have some great pictures from the party but unfortunately I can only post some cropped selections since I don't have the permission of everyone's parents to post pictures online. So, here are the details of what we did with a smattering of pictures. You can read it all or just scroll through the pics.

As the guests arrived, we had them decorate a brown paper bag for storing all their loot. We offered markers, pirate stickers, letter stickers and other miscellaneous stickers. They really got into it and got to put a sheet of pirate stickers in their bag to take home.

Once everyone arrived, we started in on the games. First up was "Walk the Plank" in which our little pirates had to walk across some treacherous 2x4s without falling off. Those who fell were eliminated and each round got harder. There was walk forward, walk sideways, hop, walk backward and hop on one foot. At the end of each game, the winner got to open a treasure chest and help distribute the loot. They also got to wear the captain's hat during the next game. The first treasure chest held bandannas.

 

Next up was "Pin the Eye-patch on the Pirate". I made this game by getting a large piece of felt and using a sharpie to freehand a pirate face on it. My boys informed that he looked like a pirate cowboy. I guess the hat left a little something to be desired. I cut eye-patches out of different colors of felt and numbered them wit my handy sharpie. The static cling was enough to hold the eye-patches on which means we avoided having to use any tape or pins. The treasure was, of course, pirate eye-patches to wear.

Our fourth activity was a huge hit. We taped off two roughly boat-shaped areas on the floor and split into two teams. Each person was given two "cannonballs" (these were large black yarn pom-poms that I made) to throw into the other boat. We played pirate music during which everyone could throw as many cannonballs into the other boat as they could (You were allowed to pick up the ones that landed in your boat and throw them back. I realize that this is not very historically accurate.) and when the music stopped we counted how many were left in each boat. The treasure was rub-on pirate tattoos. I am embarrassed to say that some remnants of these tattoos are still left on some of my boys upper-arms. I guess they don't scrub as hard as they should during baths.... maybe it's on purpose.

Game five was very much like musical chairs except everyone had to run and jump on an "island" (large pieces of newspaper) when the music stopped. More than one person could be on an island as long as no part of their foot was touching the floor, lest they be eaten by seamonsters. Treasure consisted of miniature spyglasses. (A note about the spyglasses: I bought them from Oriental Trading after reading a comment from a reviewer that they were small but actually did magnify. What the reviewer meant to say was that the plastic lenses were warped and so made things appear differently. Magnify? not so much. The kids loved them though and at 50 cents each, who can really complain?)

Then it was on to the treasure map beanbag toss. I made a large treasure map (Benjamin destroyed it immediately after the party.) and sewed some beanbags out of skull and crossbone fabric. The goal was to get your beanbag to land on the X-marks-the-spot. The treasure chest held canvas pouches for the next activity the...

Treasure Hunt! We created a small tropical island upstairs where some unfortunate pirates had lost all of their treasure before coming to a sticky end. Their deaths probably involved those vicious looking snakes. Everyone got to fill their pouches with chocolate coins.

While I got the cupcakes and snacks ready, Marc helped the party-goers play one more game. He tied a cannonball (this time they were black balloons) to each person's ankle and the goal was to stomp on other people's without getting your own "blown up". As each person was eliminated they got to come sit down for a snack which included pirate bananas, pirate cupcakes and goldfish. I had briefly entertained the idea of making a cupcake cake, but again, the sheer elaborateness of the designs I saw made me decide that pirate flags were good enough for me. Gabriel and Elijah were excited about the "solid gold" birthday candles. We also had a choice of green "grog" Hawaiian punch and blue "ocean water" Hawaiian punch to drink.

Afterward, I vowed that I would never again use red icing on anything. One of the moms came back a little early before Benjamin was all cleaned up and thought he was covered in blood.

When everyone had their fill, the boys opened presents while Marc made awesome balloon swords for everyone to take home along with their loot bags. In retrospect, Marc wishes he would have made cutlasses instead of the fancy pommels since a cutlass would have been more accurate. No one was complaining. Several moms commented that if, you know, this doctor thing didn't work out he had a future in balloons.

The boys loved all of their gifts, but I have to admit that I was gratified that when they opened the monster hoodies that had cost me hours of hand-stitching and some frustration since I am not at all a seamstress, both boys put them on and didn't take them off for the rest of the day.

I know that I called my mom a couple of times during all of this planning and doing for the party to tell her thank you for all of her hard work that I'm sure I didn't appreciate nearly enough as a child but I want to say it again. Mom: you are a saint. Thank you for the wonderful birthday parties I had when I was little. Party planning is not for the faint of heart. I'd like to see Black Beard try it.