I have a 5 year boy that wanted a "pirate birthday party" for his fifth birthday.  I limited his guest count to 5 friends so it would be managable for me and not overwhelming for him. To start the theme of the party Zach and I made small "message in the bottle" invitations for each guest. Each invition was a small glass bottle we found at a craft store, we glued rope, shells, a small round buoy and guest name and poured sand in each one. On the computer, in a really neat letter script style, we created the invition. Using paper that looked liked "wood grain" we wrote the secret message to be a swashbuckling pirate and sail over to our house for a loot-full of fun!  We rolled each message tight and stuffed it in each bottle with a cork and hand delivered each on to his friends.  (I think this was the best part of the whole event, to see how excited he was to give that "special delivery" to his special friends.)The day of the party, Zach wore his pirate costume, and the guests recieved hats and eye patches. We had planned for a lot of craft-time during the party. First each guest created a tiny gold painted wooded treasure chest with shells, marbles, glue, and sea-shaped foam forms. While those dried, I drew mock tatoos with black eye-liner make-up on each childs forearm, choices were an anchor, shark or pirate ship (be prepared each child wanted one on each arm) They loved it!! Next we made little islands out of cardboard, colored papers, glue and clear plastic cups saved from jello cups. Taped to each jello cup, we made cardboard palm trees, then we glued the cup to blue paper shape like the ocean. Using garden dirt to fill the cups, each child planted a sunflower seed.  It was great to tell the boys that in a few weeks, they would start seeing a flower grow on their pirate island, and when it got big enough, they could put it in their back yard! While the boys played in the toy room, we clean everything up, and got ready for the snack. We had corndog swords (cut black paper in circles and poke the stick through), ship net french fries (just use the neat waffle cut french fries at the grocery store, they look just like fishermen's nets.)  and root beer. The kids loved their "corndog swords" the best. His pirate birthday cake was made by Target bakery and was really cool. Then we played pin the "x" on the map game (just so you know, every kid won so be ready with lots of prizes)Next, we did presents and after that we all went a got our treasure chests we made for the grand finale...a home-made Pirate Ship Pinata that Zach and Daddy made the night before.  (this was a great Daddy & son craft time together) Instead of have each child hit it with a stick, we decided to put a trap door on the bottom with 5 strings attached to it.  This way we had all the kids hold a string and they treasure chests ready to fill and on the count of 1. 2. 3. PULL!!! Everyone got candy at the same time, it was the best pinatas we ever had, plus now it is hanging in Zach's toy room and he remembers his party and how fun it was.  At the end of the party, Zach gave each friend a departing gift box of a plush parot, sticker, jewels, and candy to say thank you for coming to my party.  This was the most exciting and fun party we have done yet and having our 5 year old son so involved from every step, made him so proud and impowered with decision making, counting, fine motor skills and just happy about being a kid.  I did take lots of pictures and wrote down all these ideas for anyone who wants more details on any of the crafts we did at the party. Just a note, the house with decorated with anything and everything to do with pirates, islands,oceans and fish. We even made a small kids table with chairs borrowed from his preschool, so everything about the party was directed towards 5 year old kid and their sizes.  To finish this entire affair, his thank'you cards were pirate themed too!! Number One rule in my book for having kids parties is that it's for the kids, so have FUN!!!!!!!!!!! Take care.