5th Birthday Parrrrrghty

Planning this party was so much fine - lots of ideas gathered from creative party planners all over the net and many modified and new ideas of our own.

We made invitations by painting Flynn's hand 3 colours to make a pirate hand print - then put details of the party inside.

We have a very large trailer which became our pirate ship. I used a refrigerator box to make the ship and my husband used a long skinny log for the large Jolly Roger Flag - he tied this to the trailer with ratchet tie downs so it was in the middle of the ship. He also made a plank so that it was suspended off the side of the trailer so the children could walk a truly suspended plank into the sea (bean bag in paddling pool below). This proved to be one of the most popular activities of the day and while I intended it to be a structured game the children played on it ALL day.

The other highlight of the day was when my husband towed the ship behind his quad bike, like a real moving pirate ship, and the children fired black round cannons (water balloons) at the bad pirate. Tis was lots of fun and the children were buzzing - many of the Mums and Dads, and grandparents got involved, too.

We played hook toss, with little rings over plastic pirates hooks. Because this was very much one at a time activity, we had a soft toy captain hook for the others to pass around the circle between them to see how many passes they could do before the child got the three rings on.

Pin the patch on the pirate and crocodile wrestling were other activities.

Ran out of time for our treasure hunt, so the children got their loot bags and shark balloon from the treasure chest as they left.