For my son's 4th birthday party we are planning a pirate party. This will be the first time he has had a themed party so I wanted it to be special for him but on a budget. Instead of purchasing party table ware, I bought 10 blue see-through, plastic plates and 10 cups from The Warehouse. The plates were 47c each and the cups were 27c.I took a marker and drew a skull and bones on the back of the plate so the kids could still eat off it. And a skull and bones on the side of the cup. That way I could still use them after the party. I purchased a large plain green table cloth from the $2 shop and drew out a big treasure map for the table cloth. The table will have gold coins and beaded necklaces lying all over it amongst the food. And the first game they will play will be Scavenger Hunt. Everytime they find a clue, one guest retrieves his loot bag(I was thinking either a flax bag or a black pillow case resembling a bag of gold). There will be 10 clues in total because during each game they can claim their prizes and collect them in their loot bags. The next game I bought 10 lunch boxes( resembling treasure boxes) from the $ shop and put prizes in and had a picture on each box i.e. apple, tree, book, etc. And I had the same pictures in a box where the kids pick one out and match it up to the same picture on a treasure chest. They are only young kids so I didn't want to make it too complicated. The next one is "Walk the plank". I will use my son's blow-up pool and fill it with blue balloons to resemble water. 10 of them will have a black cross. And those balloons have a a small rubber shark and another treat. Each kid takes a turn at jumping in the pool and finding a marked balloon. Then they have to try pop it to claim their prize. There's another game where we will have a treasure chest full of gold coins and there are 10 envelopes with numbers on them. The child picks an envelope and I must try bribe them with gold coins to reject the envelope for it has a prize inside. The child can either take the prize or a couple of handfuls of coins. I've seen this done before and the kids stood there and really thought about what they wanted. Most of them ended up with the chocolate coins. Our last game will be a blues clues like game Where the kids look for three clues to find where the presents are hidden. And for a piniata I made a treasure chest out of an ordinary box and filled it with rubber sea animal,Little stuffed parrots, coins and other goodies. By the time the party finishes, their loot bags will be nearly full. In their loot bags will be an eye-patch,a $shop stuffed parrot where I sewed a strap on the bottom so the kids can tie them to their shoulder to have a parrot sitting on them and a few gold coins. I made their invitations out of nrmal construction paper and burnt around the edges to give it that treasure map look. The food will be drumsticks, scroggin in a treasure chest, popcorn bombs,shark burgers(fish burgers), crocodile burgers(meat paddie burgers), ships ( cut up fruit with miniature sails on toothepicks in them) and a giant jelly fishbowl. For this I have a huge round glass bowl that looks like a fish bowl but it was actually my cookie jar. I lined the bottom with giant jelly beans and pebbles. poured in light blue jelly mixed with a bit of water halfway. Stuck in some chocolate fish then topped up with jelly. It's basically an edible fish bowl. I hope they enjoy it anyway.