For my daughter's 6th birthday we held a pirate birthday party.
The invitations were a mysterious scroll (aged with some tea) that asked children to come dressed up as a pirate. I rolled up the invitations and tied them with jute in keeping with the aged look. I greeted the children with a hearty ARgghh and they were ready to begin the fun. We had a few games and stations to keep kids busy as they arrived. Face painting was a tattoo station. I keep a chart of acceptable tattoo's for them to pick from. I had scarves on hand for children who were underdressed to put on their heads, and our craft was making foam board eye patches. I had a large hamper with a sail in it and children tried to bounce a ping pong into the basket to sink the ship. When all this was done the real fun began. we said any person who could not bounce the "cannon's" (ping pong balls) 3 times in a row into the enemies ship would have to walk the plank. This was of course an impossible mission and really a very delightful consequence. Each child in turn was blindfolded and told to walk the plank in front of them. We simply had two 8 X 2" planks (no splinters) that the helpers I had would move at a different angle for each walker. The helpers had squirt bottles and were instructed to squirt the plank walker if they ever touched the ground as they have fell in the water. If the plank walkers got too cautious my husband had a small plastic sword he would use to gently encourage them forward. It was as much fun to watch for the kids as to participate. We then gathered all the matey's together for a photo shoot. The great thing about six years olds is a lot of them are losing there front teeth about then. So we also held a missing teeth contest with everyone cheering for who had the most piraty smile. We captured this on film and it still brings us to tears with laughter. Then we had an all out mutiny. I blew up a number of balloons before hand that are the thin kind for making balloon animals. I just left them long and straight in a hamper. These were to be the swords. Each child could have one. But once their balloon popped they had to lie down "dead" until a helper came to them and gave them another balloon. What hilarious pandemonium. And best of all, they were completely safe to play sword fight. After the balloons ran out the kids each helped to pick up the balloon pieces. Then it was time for the treasure hunt. You knew I wouldn't leave that out didn't you? Each clue was in the form of a short poem and printed out on my computer on aged paper. One clue had glow in the dark paint on it to read the clue they had to find a dark room (bathroom with the lights out) in the end they find the presents that were stolen during the party and a chest of treasure (really an old lunch box painted black and gold) The treasure is the gold chocolate coins and fake jewelry individually wrapped in netting for the kids to take home with them as they go. We had cake with a island theme on it and sloppy joes and chips. As a novelty we also had an old baseball bat that was cracked in half by the handle. We hamered it into the ground broken end in, and let kids pose with their knee resting on top of the \#\#\#\# end to make them look like they had a peg leg. The illusion was hilarious and parents couldn't resist trying it too. 'It is a great party for a larger group of kids were their fantasies can run wild.
