Pirate Rockstar Birthday

So, it's official - my baby is five years old!!  I think I'm still in denial or something - 5 just sounds so old when I'm so used to having "little" kids running around my house.  This little kid has been talking about having a "Pirate Rockstar" birthday party since at least January, maybe even longer.  I kept hoping that it was just a phase and maybe it would pass, but it kept becoming more and more real - I was really going to have to figure out what a Pirate Rockstar party was and pull it off!  Here is a run down of what we did!

Let's start with some decor...

Food is an important part of any kid birthday - we had the "Catch of the Day" (goldfish), "Salty Bones" (pretzels), "Shark Bait" (gummy worms), "Cannon Balls" (grapes), "Ships 'n Dip" (chips and salsa), and "Sword Kabobs" (cheese cubes on little tiny plastic swords)... I got several of the ideas from Cake Pops Galore!

The banner was up all week, and is still up today... you can't really tell in this picture, but the really bright pendant was silver sparkly striped paper - it was my favorite, and Kate's too!  My sister, Meredith, and I made the pom poms to hang from the ceiling.  If you want some instructions, you can go here.

I had centers set up all around - this was one of them, "Dress Like a Pirate."  I got the fun little girl pirate from a friend, so I have no idea where she got it.  If it's yours or you recognize it, let me know so I can give credit to the right person :)

Goody bags - the bags are just basic black bags from Target, and I found the stickers online at Celebrate Express.  I made the name tags and found some fun ribbon at Michael's.

I had signs similar to this at each center, so the kids knew where to go.

One of the little food labels

Balloon wreath for the front door

A little glimpse of the table decorations... I forgot to get a picture before everyone got there!  The black fabric is just a cheap peace of black burlap with some gold coins, bead necklaces, gems, and star fish thrown on for decoration.

Now the centers - I know, how weird, a party with centers?! We had 19 kids, so I needed a way to have everyone participating and not running around my house like crazy people :) Plus, I had so many ideas as to how to incorporate the pirate theme, and I knew it would be easier to do it in small groups.

When everyone got there, we had them color some pages with the "Do-a-Dot" markers.  My mom found a great Pirate book to go with the markers... score!

Make your own hook and spotting scope - check out the directions at Make&Takes.com

My birthday girl with her hook - I wanted to find pink solo cups that were not see through, but honestly just didn't take the time to find them.

Our neighbor and friend with her spotting scope

Next was "Dress like a Pirate" - we had necklaces, rings, girl pirate tattoos, bracelets, eye patches, and pink and black pirate bandanas.  I got most everything at Oriental Trading.

Our friend, Tessa, getting tattooed!

Megan & Gaby were in Kate's preschool class - they had a Pirate Week, and the teacher made each child a pirate shirt.  How stinkin' cool is that?!  I "borrowed" more ideas from them... I'll get to that in a minute.

Kate getting all dressed up like a pirate!  Argh!

Look at those rowdy pirates!  It looks like my birthday pirate was getting sleepy...

Next up was "Decoraate your Vest"... this idea I completely stole from Ms. Aimee, the kids' preschool teacher.  It came straight out of her Pirate Week.  I even took Brett's old vest and used it as my template.  I took her the skull and crossbones off the back of his, took it to Kinko's and made copies for the back of the party vests :)  Thanks, Ms. Aimee!!

We had TONS of stickers, stick in gems, glitter, markers, crayons, etc. to decorate their vest

Our little friend, Carmela, modeling her vest :)

Next was the "Poop Deck Reading Nook" - we had How I Became a Pirate on CD.  It worked perfectly!!  We have a balcony that overlooks the foyer... kind of like a poop deck.

Brett, listening carefully to the story

That's my sister, Erin, leading this center... I thought it was appropriate to have a 1st grade teacher leading the reading center :)  I had about 15 different pirate books for them to look at too!

Then they went to "Walk the Plank" - they thought it was great fun, even though it was easily 95 degrees that day.  Thanks to my brother-in-law, Jeff, for manning this station for an hour!

My little pirate liked to jump off the plank!

They also had to do a "Peg Leg Race" while they were out here... hop on one foot (like a peg leg) all the way through the obstacle course!

 

What a great looking group of pirates!  ARGH!!

Now for the food! The cupcakes were done by Karen's Custom Cakes here in Raleigh.  I sent her a picture of the plates that I found and told her to go for whatever she thought.  WOW!  They were amazing!!  Kate absolutely LOVED them!

 

 

All the kids squeezed in tight around the table, ready to chow down!

The birthday girl loved all of the snacks!

Kate & Memere - ARGH!

She was so excited for everyone to sing to her :)

Another view of the cupcakes

And more cupcakes :)

Posing for the camera!

Thanks to these 3 pirates (among others) for all of their help at the party!

After all the kids had snack, we went out to the garage for the pinata!  I found this great pinata at Target - if only it had been pink and blank instead of red and black :)  Whatcha gonna do?

All lined up and waiting to go out!

Stuffed and ready

Birthday girl is ready to take the first swing!

Batter up!

Everyone is watching and waiting... I love that some of the kids are still in costume!  It was easily 95 degrees that day!

Carmela with her loot!

Even some of the parents got into it!

After everyone left, Kate got to open her presents - she got a TON of new clothes, legos, and a new trapeze bar to replace the baby swing on our play set. She wanted to try it out immediately! So that's what we did!

Brett had a good time playing "Walk the Plank"

Kater-Potater testing out the new trapeze!