For my son's 5th Birthday, he chose a pirate theme for his party.  We sent out invitations to guests with their new pirate name (Long John Silver, One-Eyed Bart, PegLeg Peggy, Jolly Roger, Captain Kidd...etc). The front door was covered with pirate flags (from US Toy company) and computer generated warning signs in old English font("Pirates only", "Beware", "Enter at ye own risk". Once inside, the kids were handed a bag with a costume inside. The bags had a pirate logo and their new pirate name on parchment paper glued to the front of the bag. I burned the edges of the parchment paper tags, so it made the names look really old and worn.  Inside the bag I had made each child a black vest out of felt-complete with a name tag (again burned around the edges), a red sash, an eye patch, and pirate hat (US Toy Company). I chose to keep it a weapon free party-but I was going to make balloon swords-we ran out of time. The children then went to the back yard where we took their picture in costume in 1 of 2 large pirate ships (made out of old refrigerator boxes). While they waited for the guests to arrive, the little pirates bounced in the "pirates hide-away" bounce house. Once all our young guests arrived it was time to eat. We snacked on Pirate Pies (pizza), chips, carrots, and small cups of blue Jell-O with goldfish crackers and a toothpick with a pirate ship picture on it. The cake was in the shape of a pirate ship (two 8-inch rounds cut in half and put together with frosting- flat side up) with two masts (wooden skewers with paper sails) Rolo candy cannons on the side, maltball cannon balls on the deck, fisher price pirates, and treasure (gold foil candy).   For the games, the kids played "pin the flag on the pirate ship", and we had a Pirate war. The group of 12 kids was placed on two teams-one in each of the big boats (fridge boxes painted to look like ships). Each pirate was handed two cannonballs (newspaper covered with foil) and when Captain Kidd (my son) yelled "fire" everyone tried to throw his cannonball into the other teams ship. Once everyone had thrown their cannonballs, we counted which team had the most balls in their ship. They were the losers of the battle and had to "walk the plank". (A small swimming pool with fake alligators and sharks with a long board going across held up by egg crates) Of course the winning team thought that was so cool, so they walked the plank too. After the war, the kids had a treasure hunt. They were given rhyming clues that sent them throughout the house. They had to work together to figure out where to go next, and I had them all stick together so no one was left out. After 7 clues they ended up on the side of the house where I had 12 X's spraypainted in the dirt. Each pirate had to find an X and dig for their treasure. I had buried small plastic treasure chests with gold candy coins, gold beads, and fake diamond rings inside. (I wrapped the chests in baggies and didn't bury them until 30 minutes before the party-so the ants and bugs wouldn't find them first!) After the treasure hunt, we opened presents, and had a pirate pinata (cheap at Pic-N-Save). My son absolutely loved his party, and many of our little pirate guests still play with their pirate costumes!