On our son's fifth Birthday he wanted a pirate party. So I typed up an invitation poem  for Captain Alex's pleasure to help him find his treasure, etc. On arrival the guests received a red satch, a pre-cut bandana, an eye patch made of black vinyl and elastic string and a pre-painted (gold) pencil box (treasure chest) to store their loot in after the treasure hunt. At the dining room table they decorated their treasure boxes with glitter glue pens and golden and colorful jewels etc. After that they were each given a picture of an obvious item in our yard, if they needed help Captain Alex was there to lend a hand. Taped to each "point-of-interest" there was a clue or piece of the "stolen" map. Once everyone found their clue they rushed back to the porch to put them all together to form the map. My husband did this while they went off to play in our play area. I actually had a second copy of the map uncut that replaced the cut up one that was waiting on them after playing and eating lunch. For lunch we served Pirate ship hot dogs, chips, grapes (cannon balls) and sharks blood (gingerale with a drop of red food coloring). I made pirate flags for the hot dogs by drawing skulls and crossbones on a small sheet of paper and folding/gluing it over a toothpick.  After lunch we were back outside following my husband (wearing a black pirate t-shirt and red bandana) in search of the treasure chest.  We were in the middle of redoing the front of our house landscape and it worked out perfect. We had two 20 foot 2foot wide walking planks edged with rope and wooden post "hand rails" leading up to the house in the middle of the vast muddy area (the front yard). In the mud we put toy alligators and rocks painted gold and colorful jewels. They loved this.He lead them throughout our yard (5 acres) while holding the map. The location of the chest was even a surprise to Captain Alex. As they located it they all rummaged through and got arm loads of stuff to take in to their now dry treasure boxes. We then had a slice of pirate cake and opened presents.  Months prior to the party I built a pirate ship out of 4x4's, 2x4's etc. complete with Captain's wheel on the bow over a ravine in our yard. It also has two stories with a rope ladder to climb up top. This was our home base full of imagination during the party. I took everyone's picture behind the captain's wheel to add to their thank you notes later. What a blast!