For my son's 4th birthday, he wanted a pirate party. So, for the invitation, I got some paper that looked like a scroll. I put a picture of a pirate on it, and in "Pirate Lingo" put all of the info on it and encouraged everyone to dress in pirate attire. At the bottom of the invitation, I had a picture of a map to our house. My husband and I even dressed in pirate clothes and of course our son did too. When the children arrived, on the door, it said "Enter if ye dare". Since my son's birthday is close to Halloween, we got all sorts of skeletons and cob webs to decorate the front porch. Once in the front hall way all you could see was a pirate flag I made out of construction paper and black and white crepe paper hanging from the ceiling to the floor. Once they came in I handed them a hat in which I had made out of black construction paper cut like a captain's hat stapled on each side, I had pasted a skull and cross bones I had cut out of white construction paper. I also gave them an eye patch which I had made out of black craft foam and thin black elastic. They were then led to the craft table which I had made the table cloth out of a tan colored sheet in which I drew a treasure map on. For the craft, we made spy glasses out of a paper towel tube with colored cellophane at one end held in place with a rubber band. I then allowed the kids to decorate with sequins, stickers, jewels, markers, crayons, and of course glitter. After that, we went on to "pillage and plunder" out side. On our patio in the back yard, I had placed a plastic child's wading pool filled with different shades of blue and green shredded tissue paper. It was then filled with all sorts of treasures, candy, plastic rings, and pennies. After that it was time for the treasure hunt. I set up the treasure hunt a little different. Since I had children of all ages, I wanted them all to enjoy, so rather than reading, I had them go to different characters to lead them to the treasure. It started out in the back yard with the "sea monster". Actually, it was my dad dressed up as a sea monster. He chased the kids and tickled them all the way to the mermaid. The mermaid, which was my sister dressed up like a mermaid, was inside my den in which I made a cove and labeled it "Mermaid Lagoon" in gold letters with green crepe paper draped from ceiling to floor on each side. The mermaid led the children to "Skull Cave" which was actually the entrance to the hallway. We decorated it to look like a cave. To do this we used PVC piping covered in cardboard and newspaper, which was covered in tissue paper to give it a rock like appearance. I had filled the opening with draped black tissue paper from the top of the entrance to the floor. Beside the cave was a silver skull with a pirate hat on and flashing eyes and nose. Inside the cave was the dolphin, my mom. She led the kids to the "treasure" which was actually the gift table which was decorated with red and gold tissue paper with a big red X in the center of the table which was later revealed with the opening of the presents. Around the table I had little treasure chests I had made out of brown lunch sacks filled with gold confetti and the following party favors: Mardi gras necklaces, chocolate coins, plastic compasses, sunglasses, and bubbles. One for each kid, so everyone had a treasure. That was when my son opened up all of his gifts. After that it was time for cake and ice cream and punch. A friend of ours made the cake to look like a treasure map. For the punch I made blue kool-aid, for the ice I filled the ice trey with sprite and gummy fish. The kids loved it. After cake and ice cream, we all sat down and watched the movie "Hook" until it was time for everyone to go home. It was a great party!