Views of the Hood: Gunnar's Pirate Parrrrrrrty

Friday, November 18, 2011

Gunnar's Pirate Parrrrrrrty

Ahoy, mateys! The theme of Gunnar's birthday party was inspired by this pirate cake that I saw in a magazine a long time ago. It was a lot of fun to make and, was, I think, one of my best yet.

I also lucked out at Target when I was buying party supplies and found whole bunch of pirate stuff on clearance! What would have cost me $13, cost about $3. Love it. Add a few cool printables and pirate-y crafts that I found online and we were in business for the perfect afternoon of swashbuckling fun for four 4-year-olds (and a couple sisters).

Maggie dons her best pirate face as she shows off her cup-and-foil hook.

Pirate spyglasses and hooks awaited the mateys.

Adah and Maggie helped by created our "treasure map" on the floor. They created a path of electrical tape dashes from the front door, through the entry, around the table, and finally to where an X marked the spot. Treasure chests got hidden under the desk just beyond the X. We brought the boys inside after they played outside for a bit (thank goodness for dry weather that day) and they found their treasures; eye patches were inside.

Balloon swords, added to the spyglasses, eye patches, and hooks, completed their pirate-y ensembles. Aarrrr! The boys loved running around the yard and using the play structure as their pirate ship. We even had a "plank" for everyone to walk.

We also played pin the eye patch on the pirate. (Thank you, again, Target clearance shelf.)

Gunnar loved the harmonica from his buddy Jack.

Blake gave him this fun Play-Doh board game where you make little Play-Doh potatoes and they have to move around the board without getting turned into french fries, chips, or mashed potatoes! (And I need to give thanks here to Blake's mom, Andrea, who stayed throughout the party to give me a hand since Damon couldn't make it home from work. Holly, amazingly, napped through almost the whole party.)