This party was for my son Kier's 7th birthday. It took about 2 months to plan but the kids and adults all had a GREAT time! I started with the invitation.  I printed them on a piece of parchment paper, tore the edges, rolled them up and put them in clear bottles.  In the bottom of the bottles we put sand and added a few small shells.  We hand delivered them to each child and put it in their mailboxes.  I had so many parents call me to tell me what a great idea and that their kids were so excited!  The invites said, "Ahoy There Matey! Ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captn Kier's Buccaneer Bash.  He needs shipmates to swab the deck, walk the plank, and hunt for long lost treasure. Chart ye course fer the Port of Hickory Creek (you can add your own town name).  Captn Kier's Pirate Ship is docked at XX Robins Nest (your street address) and ye set sail on the 19th of June (date of the party). We be a meetin at 1:00 fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits.  Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or hav yer mum send message by yer phone to 940-XXX-XXXX. Sees ye there..... aarrgh! Don't forget ye secret Buccaneer password to get on ye ship:  Cannonball"     For the party we decorated the outside to look like a dock. The walkway was decorated with tiki torches along and plastic gold coins (you can get a gross of them from either Oriental Trading or US Toy Company) and signs that read, "Danger", "Enter at ye own risk", and "Go Away". We made our signs out of cardboard that I painted to look like wood and just painted the words with white paint.  I made a huge pirate flag to hang off the house.  It was black cotton fabric, and I cut out a skull and cross bones using white fabric and Heat n Bond.  Just iron onto the black fabric and hang. As you walked up to the front door we had built a boat dock.  We went "dumpster diving" at some construction sites where they were framing new homes. We were able to gather 2x4's and planks to build the dock without having the expense of purchasing the wood. We put it on a blue tarp to look like water and scattered the plastic gold coins in the "water". I made and painted a dingy out of cardboard and it's tied to the dock. Just use a cardboard box and slit one end of it. Cut off the top and I just assembled it using bolts and screws. Painted it brown to look like a boat.  We covered our windows with a film and we made cardboard boards to attach to make it look like it's boarded up. A few of them say "Keep Out" and "Pirates Only".  We got some netting so we have that draped over things out there.    Hung a couple of birds and it looked like a dock. We also hid a CD player that played, Yo Ho Ho a Pirates Life for Me as the kids walked up.    My family was dressed as pirates. We shopped at thrift stores looking for big blousy shirts, vests and pants that I could cut the bottoms off and fray the ends. With bandana, gaudy jewelry, and my husband shaving his beard down to a pirate moustache and goatee we were ready for our guests. As they came up to the door we greeted each Pirate with a "Ahoy there Matey, what is the password to get on the ship".  Once they came inside I had someone hand them each a bag that was numbered.  Each bag contained a bandana, sash, eye patch and moustache. The numbers on the bag were done so that all of the even ones were RED and the odds were BLUE inside. That way there was no fighting over colors and I had the teams made up.  I made the bandanas out of Red and Blue fabric.  I printed on iron on transfer skull and crossbones and ironed on each one. The sash color matched the bandana.  The eye patch and stick on moustaches came from Oriental Trading. After they were dressed they moved into the kitchen to get their tattoo. I made these also on the computer. There is tattoo paper you can now print on.  After they were dressed, had their tattoos they were ready to become a pirate.   We then moved to the backyard. The porch was decorated with more netting. The gift table was another black cloth with a skull and crossbones ironed on it. The food table was a treasure map tablecloth that I got at US Toy Company. I had all of the plates, spoons, forks and napkins in a treasure box. We had greenery on the table, with more jewels, and plastic gold coins and pirate flags hanging on the walls. In the yard we had built 2 10' long pirate ships out of cardboard. We weren't able to find refrigerator boxes but were able to find 4x8' cardboard. We cut a template out and duplicated it for the ships. We painted them to look like old plank ships. We used stakes in the yard and attached the cardboard to them with wood staples.  We sunk a larger PVC pipe (about 2 feet down) in the yard and put 2 12' tall smaller PVC pipe inside. We attached 2 cross beams of PVC pipe on the mast by using screws and bolts.  On these cross beams we hung the sails. I created the sails out of a black flat sheet cut in half. I ironed on a RED skull and crossbones on one sail and a Blue on the other.  At the top of the sails I cut a flag in the Red or blue and attached it to the top.  We also built 2 cannons for another game. We painted 2 4" PVC pipe black. Made a triangle stand, glued some attachments to the side and glued a white rope on for the wick.  The hot glue once painted looked like a solder spot. As the kids came to the back porch each was given a pirate name for the day.  This was a big hit.   After most kids were there my husband explained the rules or in this case "the Pirates Rules of Ethics". Such as all pirates must have fun or swab the deck, all matey's must share in the pirate loot, etc. Then we were ready for the games.  He explained that each pirate had either Red or Blue on.  And if they noticed each ship was either Red or Blue.  As he blew the whistle they were to go to their ships for the first game. The first game was "Sink the Ship".  We got plastic softballs (4 in a package) at the dollar store.  We painted each black with that plastic spray paint to look like cannon balls.  I put them in metal buckets and had each kid grab 2 balls. The object was to throw as many balls in each other's ship.  When they heard the whistle they were to stop and we counted the balls.  This was a blast! I think the parents had just as much fun as they were going between the ships tossing balls back into the boats. Whichever team had the most balls in it is the one that was sunk. The loosing team has to walk the plank (we played twice so both teams lost and had to walk the plank) The plank came off our porch and they had to walk over a blow up pool with the floating sharks, etc. in it. They had to "walk backwards, on one foot, etc".  Next we played a game called Cannonball Plop.  I had put messages in each black water balloon which either said winner or sorry.  They had to break the balloon without using their hands or feet. The winners got a telescope.   After that we played  "load your cannon". The kids got back in their teams and lined in a straight line. They had to pass 3 cannon balls one at a time from teammate to team mate and then load the cannon without using their hands.  We played that several times, as that was a fun game.  As each team won the team got to reach into a bowl that I had filled with puzzle pieces.  I painted a puzzle that looks like a treasure map with a clue on the bottom.  But I pulled 2 pieces out.  Once we had played the games we put the puzzle together.  The kids realized they had a few pieces missing. We then suggested that we go ahead and have the cake and ice cream and such while we figure out where the missing pieces were. The drinks were in a cooler that read "Sharks Blood" on another fake wood plank that was made out of cardboard. The drinks were the red fruit juice boxes.  My husband and I made the cake look like a treasure chest.  We frosted a fake top and putting candy necklaces, ring pops, etc. in it so it looks like loot in the chest. We will then have the presents.  Kier's last present was the last 2 pieces of the puzzle.  Once we put that together it's was on a treasure hunt we went.  We made up a rhyme that sent the kids all over the neighborhood looking for pirate clues. We had them going to neighbor's houses, down to the park, etc. Finally they come back to our yard for the treasure chest. It was filled with little cloth loot bags. I had ironed on the skull and crossbones on each of them.  It was filled with Chuck-E-Cheese coins, foiled covered gum coins, and more tattoos. It was so much fun.  The kids have talked about it for weeks since.  It was a lot of work but so worth it. The kids had a blast and I'm sure will talk about it for a long time to come. I'm not sure how we will top this year's party next year!