We had a pirate party for my son's 5th birthday. I printed the invitation on parchment paper in an old-looking font. We put a "pirate map" on the back with an "X marking the spot" at our house.  I burned the edges to make it look old, then rolled it into a scroll and hand delivered them to the kids.  I called and asked all the mothers to give me a small (disposable) snapshot of the kids (like a school picture). I cut out around the head, then added a pirate name such as Long John Smith, Dread Pirate Brad, Jacob the Terrible, etc.  Then I made them into buttons using a button maker machine that I borrowed.  I attached these to strings of yarn, with a different color for each child. Then I wound the strings all around the yard and around each other, ending at a little "treasure box" filled with chocolate coins, little gold colored trinkets and a full size plastic pirate hat and sword.  When the kids arrived, they had to find their button and follow the string on their treasure hunt. While we were waiting for everyone to finish, I added pirate mustaches and goatees to the kids with a burnt cork.  Not all of them wanted to do this, so I didn't make them do it! The cake was a 9 x 13 cake in 3 layers, made into a treasure chest.  I put down the first two layers, then added folded cardboard before the top layer.  I frosted it with chocolate frosting, then propped open the top layer with toothpicks.  I put in lots of gold chocolate coins, gold curly ribbon, shiny beads and costume jewelry and anything else I could find that looked like treasure.  I used yellow frosting to add wide bands across the top of the chest and a latch in the front. The treasure spilled out onto the table. We played pin the peg-leg on the pirate and a few other party games given a pirate twist.  Brad had a wonderful time!