For my daughter's 4th birthday we had a pirate party. I made the invitations on the computer to look like treasure maps. I soaked tea bags in water then dabbed them around each paper to make it look old. I also burned the edges to make it look authentic!! This was a little messy though! I searched around many sites and came up with wording for the party that was a little poem inviting all the pirates to a treasure hunt with Captain Emily. I assigned each child a pirate name using a website that generated pirate names. I had to tweak some of the names to make them kid friendly. I painted each child's canvas bag with a pirate stencil and their pirate names. I also made printable stickers for each child with thier pirate names!! They loved it!! I found a website called Mr McGroovy's that had plans to make a pirate ship out of cardboard boxes. My daughter had a friend in her preschool class whose parents owned a furniture store and they gave me a few large boxes to use!! It turned out great! I bought an anchor and steering wheel to add to the ship! I also bought some shiny tulle and layed it under the ship to look like ocean water!! The kids loves posing inside the ship and it made a great photo op! A few months after the party, we put the ship out for the garbage men and my husband saw the garbage men playing in it before they picked it up! HA HA  When the kids arrived at the party, we gave them their pirate name sitcker and then had an area set up to give tattoos, pirate bandanas, hoop earrings and eye patches. I purchased these from Oriental Trading and Birthdayexpress.com I found a cute cannonball game that was played like hot potato but the cannonball made pirate noises and then an explosion noise when the time was up!! We played Walk the Plank" with a 2X4 propped up over a blue tarp that I had scattered toy snakes and blow up alligators and sharks that I got from the dollar store. I made the older kids close their eyes when they walked across the plank! Then we played pin the flag on the treasure map. After that we had a treasure hunt I found clue cards. My son was 7 and so was my neice and the read the clues to the younger guests as they found them. I had the treasure hunt end in the sandbox where I had placed their personalized treat bags. I also hid some "treasure" in the sandbox like gold rings gold & silver plastic coins and seashells. They really liked that!! Decorations:We decorated the dining room with pirate flag pennants that we hung across the room. We had a large skull balloon bunch in the corner of the room. I found a treasure map tablecloth from potterybarn kids on clearance and a treasure map that we hung in the room. We lined the driveway with pirate flags from Oriental Trading and hung more pirate garland outside going to the party tent. I also bought large cardboard pirates that we hung around the outside of the house to add to the theme! We made treasure chest decorations from foam coolers we got at the dollar store that we painted and put strips of brown contruction paper with gold tacks that we attached to the paper. We also decorated the gift table with a trasure chest overflowing with dollar store necklaces and crowns. We propped up a pirate book we got at the Christmas Tree Shop for $3.00 and a book that showed the different parts of a pirate ship in it! Food: I served the kids chickn nuggets shaped like sea creatures and smile french fries. I had grapes (cannonballs) strawberries (rubies) and goldfish crackers. I found cute placemats that looked like treausre maps. The partyware I got at birthday express. I found mini cardboard treaure chests at the dollar store and I placed one at each child's seat. For the adults I had the silverware wrapped in napkins and tied with red ribbon all placed in a trasure chest.  Favors: We had the personalized treat bags. We also made each child a bag of pirate snack mix that had chocolate coins goldfish crackers pretzel sword sticks whopper cannon balls and bugles. We put the treat mix in pirate bags from the dollar store. I made coloring books for each child with pictures I printed. At the end of the coloring book we made a thank you note from my daughter! We had pirate pencils bubbles bags of goldfish crackers and shark fruit snacks plus the stuff they got from the treasure hunt and the costume bandanas & eyepatches. Cake: We made a treasure chest cake and pirate cupcakes. Each cupcake was frosted white m&m eyes chocolate chip nose icing mouth fruit by the foot cut to look like a bandana and then I sprinkled black sprinkles to look like a beard.We layed the treaure chest on a cake board and sprinkled brown sugar around to look like sand. We also spread chocolate coins rock candy and candy necklaces around in the "sand".  Later I took the group photo I had taken by the pirate ship where all the kids were making their pirate faces and loaded it onto walmart.com and printed thank you cards with that photo that we mailed to each kid!! We had a great time with this party!! My daughter is still talking about it!! "