My son had a pirate birthday party for his 5th birthday. The invitations indicated that Captain _______'s treasure had been stolen, and that he/she was rounding up shipmates to set sail in search of it. Once the guests arrived, we had costumes ready for them to put on. Sashes were made from strips of red and white striped material, and we cut triangles out of the same material to tie on their heads as pirate kerchiefs. The children then divided into two pirate clans and set sail in their ships. The ships were made from sofa boxes picked up from the local furniture store. We used the corners of the boxes and painted them to look like bows of ships, complete with a broom stick and pillow case for a mast and sail. Inside the ships they found a supply of "cannonballs", or black water balloons, in case they ran into any other pirates. At this point we announced "other pirates", which began the water balloon fight. The losers of the water balloon fight had to "walk the plank", which consisted of a slide with a wading pool at the bottom. It wasn't long until they were all "walking the plank". While all the fun was going on, the thief left a treasure map back on one of the ships. The children then followed the map to the "treasure", a piñata full of plastic rings, gems, and candy that they filled their loot bags with. The cake was decorated as a treasure map, complete with a shipwreck and dotted line to "x marks the spot". We used a Lego pirate ship kit to decorate the cake that came with a miniature treasure chest, which we filled with change and buried in the cake under the "x" and gave to the birthday boy.