Kaylee is 5 *Sigh*

I meant to post this yesterday for International Talk Like A Pirate Day! For Kaylee's 5th Birthday party she chose a pirate theme party. We invited 7 other children (for a total of 9) all under 6, and had 9 adults too. Just as an interesting side fact 3 of the children were triplets, so that upped our numbers significantly, lol.

I used a Silhouette file to create a treasure map invitation. I first cut it out of black patterned paper for the backing and then a beige patterned paper for the front. I ran the front through my printer to add the invite/text and then used my Xyron to glue them together. The back then showed white, so I used Tim Holtz distress ink in Walnut Stain to give it that aged look. Rolled it up and tied it with twine. The bottle, now that was a story. I went to 3 dollar stores (every one in our city) to find colored bottles with a cork in them. There were none. Then I thought maybe the small coke bottles would work but the labels were printed right on the bottles. While in the bottled drinks aisle I spotted the Perrier bottled water bottles. Green, flat bottom, removable label, and screw top. PERFECT! And they were $3.49 for 4, cheaper than I would have paid at a dollar store. PERFECT!

I used a Silhouette cut file to make the cupcake wraps which I cut out of kraft paper and the sails which were cut out of white cardstock. A cocktail toothpick doubled as a flagged mast. We made 24 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. We had 2 left at the end of the party. Almost all of the kids had 2 each, lol. Always a good sign that they were tasty.

 The Armada ;o)

We took 3 cardboard boxes and covered them in mirror tape found at the dollar store in the hardware section. We found little treasure chest cases at a craft wholesaler and filled them with chocolate loonies and toonies and jelly beans. Then we put 3 little chests into each box. I taped the boxes shut with black hockey tape to look like the straps on the chest. Then we buried them in the yard. My mother-in-law drew up 3 maps. My husband used sticks in the shape of an X to mark the spots. The kids absolutely loved digging for buried treasure!

We also bought pirate hats, parrot decorations and a palm tree scene at the craft wholesale warehouse. The pirate swords were from a dollar store. We set up a photo corner and took Kaylee's picture on 'the island' with all of her guests as they came in.

My lessons learned: we should have taped the little chests shut because by the time the kids were done digging up and ripping open the big treasure boxes the little ones had some dirt in them. Luckily kids under 6 aren't bothered by treats with dirt on them. Also the palm tree decorations were just plastic and not wall clings like we thought they were so they didn't look very good on the wall and we had to figure out a way to get them to stay up there. Wouldn't buy those again next time but they did the job for the day.

I would like to share at:

Dream Valley Challenges celebrations, closes Sept. 30