Pirate -- Treasure Planet & pirates of the carribean My son, who turned 5, always has to pick the hardest themes to find supplies for in Canada.  Last year it was Flash from Justice League, there weren't even Justice League Toys let alone a Flash. This year was no different, Treasure Planet & Pirates of the Carribean. I couldn't even find a poster. Together we made the invitations with stamps and markers, they didn't look so hot but each one had a special story.  As my son stamped and drew lines he would make up a story, "Watch out, Blackbeard is out there, here's his pirate hat." and "This is a giant clam with a stick in his mouth, isn't that funny, but it broke."  One card showed the whole game plan of one ship chasing the other. I bought a tonne of shiny plastic beads and had the whole dayhome make treasure by stringing them together. They loved it and although I had to fish beads out of the heating vents, I loved the quiet of the activity. The weather was so warm for the end of March we went outside and they painted pirate pictures to decorate the basement and made treasure chests out of empty baby wipes boxes.  I bought little loaf pans to make individual treasure chest cakes which I baked quarters in. I decorated with chocolate icing and shoestring licorice and had cut the tops off and hollowed them out allowing me to put candy treasure inside each one, necklace, ring and gold coins.  Of course no one ate the cake but all the treasure was gone.  The weather was so warm we had the party outside. I hung the long bead ropes on the railing and gate to the backyard.  I also hung out a bunch of costume jewlery. On a the front door I had taped a skeleton from halloween pointing to the side gate and saying "that away maties."  Once inside the gate the chalkbord easel said Welcome to Port Royal.  The wooden playset had been transformed into a pirate ship with flags and ballpit balls for cannon balls.  Everyone had to dress up as a Pirate, my son was Captain Jack Sparrow.  As the kids arrived they were to put there gifts in an old antique trunk and were assigned to either Jimbo's team or Silver's team. They started off with a treasure hunt throughout the neighbourhood, each clue had been antiqued in tea and ink, some even burned.  Small treasures (candy) were placed in each box (wipes) with a new clue. At one point some unknown kids had found a buried box and all that was left was the clue.  This gave me time to collect all the treasure and the trunk of gifts and hide it next door. When they came back they discovered that the cyborg had stole all the treasures and gifts. After lunch it was time to go into Treasure Planet (the basement)for some games but they had to walk the plank (a landscape tie) to gain entry. To decorate I borrowed some pirate flags from a friend who found them on the internet.  I taped Treasure Planet pictures I printed off by scanning them from the book, probably not so legal but they really should sell posters.  I had put a blue rug out and had each team had to stand on each side with black water bomb balloons filled with air, not water, and throw them at each other.  Whichever team had the least balloons on their side won and got to pick a small toy from the bowl (these were old mcdonald toys I wanted to get rid of).  At the fish pond they used a rod with a magnet for a hook to fish for their goodie bags, Ziploc bags with a magnet attached and each filled with different stuff. They made their own necklaces or braclets. As they did this I went upstairs and threw chocolate eggs all over the lawn for an egg hunt (It was also Easter). Then it was time for cake, my dad had built a large Thomas train table and it sat all 11 kids. I had put a blue plastic shower curtain lining (the ocean) under it to protect the carpet from spills.  When they went to the washroom to wash up they found a note from the Cyborg taped to the mirror with a clue to where the treasure lay.  They ran outside, found the eggs (some of which were melted) and the treasure.  After gifts we played games like red rover and what time is it Mr. Arrow until the parents came to pick them up.  Note:I couldn't have done this with out help.