For my son's third birthday party, we did a "Dora Pirate" Theme. For the invites, we bought the regular birthday invitations. We cut out the Dora & Boots and glued them onto a small pirate ship picture that we'd downloaded.  We added pirate hats to Dora & Boots and the words "Ahoy Matey - Join Dora & her Pals on their Big Pirate Adventure ..."  We decorated with large pirate flags that I made out of felt, palm trees, and bright colored ballons (Dora colors).  When kids arrived, they each got a backpack.  I ordered drawstring backpack from Oriental Trading ($13.95/dozen!) and painted on the "Backpack" face from Dora's Backpack. For the first hour, kids went to three games and a craft.  The craft was decorating their own treasure chest (OT - $13.95/dozen!).  Game #1 was "X Marks the Spot" - I cut out four different colored X's from foam paper (three of each color) and buried them in our turtle sandbox. I also made four different colored treasure chests.  Kids dug for an X and when they found an X they got a prize from that color treasure chest.  If they found a purple X, they got a prize from the purple treasure chest that which had candy necklaces. The red box had bubble rings, the blue box had squirty fish, and the green one had toy beaded necklaces.  Game #2 was a fishing game.  I bought some fishing sets with magnets and magnet fish from the Dollar Store. We used a baby pool. We added an "island" that was a small ring float that I'd taped on construction paper as a base and then added Dora figures that I'd taped on to toilet paper rolls and added magnets on the top.  The prize for that game was a flavor-ice pop. Game #3 was an Octopus Ring Toss that I'd bought from OT in another baby pool.  The prize for that was a fish tatoo.  We then had dinner which was a Mexican Theme. We had tacos, cheese quesadillas, fruit, nachos, & taquitos.  After dinner, we went our Treasure Hunt.  My husband was the "Captain of the Pirates."  He talked in a pirate voice and told the kids that Swiper had swiped our treasure. Each kid got a pirate hat (again from OT), they wore their backpacks, they got a treasure map that my husband and I had made based on Dora's maps, and they all got "Magic Telescopes" which were toilet paper rolls that we'd spray painted gold.  The first part of the treasure hunt was to walk the plank. My husband had attached a long board off of our two front steps.  Kids had to "walk the plank" and jump off and then go to the first "resting spot" which was a cheap plastic tablecloth that we'd laid out on the grass.  On the resting spot, the Pirate Captain told them to look at their maps to see what was next.  The map had seven letter C's in a row.  Kids had to "Sail to the 7 C's" by running to and touching each of the seven cardboard C's I'd tied to our front trees. (They used their telescopes to find the 7 c's.)  On the next resting spot, they were told the next part of the map said they had to go through "Crocodile Cove".  My husband told them that the crocodiles were sleeping so they had to tip toe through through them so they wouldn't wake them up. We'd taken another tablecloth and taped stepping stones onto it through the crocodiles, which were two of the crocodile floats we'd bought for the pool. It was really cute to see them walking so quietly!  On the next resting spot, Pirate Captain told them to get out their telescopes because they had to find the sign for the entrance to "Treasure Island." They found that it was on our gate to the backyard.  Pirate Captain told them that the treasure was hidden in the backyard/Treaure Island and that they'd have to look for the golden rocks(spray painted) to help them find the treasure.  (We'd taped the treasure chest shut so they couldn't tear into it before everyone got there.) Once they found the treasure, the Pirate Captain opened up the treasure chest which had a goodie bag for each kid inside.  The kids LOVED the treasure hunt!! After that, we did the cake which was an Island Dora cake. I made two large (12") round cakes and put them together, cutting some chunks around the edges to make it look more like an island. I put it on a large board we had and covered it w/ tinfoil.  Around the cake, I put blue coconut for the ocean and gummy sharks. The island was part sand (frosting w/ graham crackers) and part green frosting for the island.  I also had baked some cake mix in a small bowl for the volcano.  I made palm trees out of pretzel rods and gummy candy for the palm leaves.  I downloaded some pictures of Dora, Boots, and Swiper for and attached them to toothpicks to place on the island. I also made a treasure chest with nerds as the jewels and put an X on the sand. My son loved the cake!  We finished with presents.  Everyone seemed to love it!