6066

Pirate Neverland -4yr- Neverland in the Home

March 2003

Susan in Cumberland, Maryland, USA

Runner-up

Pirate/ Never Land Party for 4 year old son who is a huge Captain Hook fanatic! We invited just a few friends and family to help us celebrate. We decorated the house with all of our son's numerous pirate toys. Each room was a different part of Never Land and had a corresponding map piece on the wall to let everyone know which section they were in. The entry hall was Hangman's Tree it was decorated with a wooden coat tree that we hung a rope noose from along with some dangling skeletons. 

The Livingroom was: Skull rock with skeletons and pirates and boats and all the Peter Pan Never Land characters all around. The Dining Room was the Indian camp complete with Indians and teepees laying about. The stairs leading downstairs was Crocodile creek, complete with three crocodiles peeking up  from between the steps and railings. The downstairs was the Pirates cove: We hung a ships wheel from the ceiling and had a hook dangling from that. Along with other nautical themes, ropes, ships, Hook, Pan anchors, etc. The garage was designated as Mermaid Lagoon.

No pirate party is complete without a treasure hunt so I had to lay the ground work: I made a map of Never Land with a red X marks the spot on my computer and then drew lines to form jigsaw pieces on it. I printed it out twice (once with the "X" and once without). I cut the one with the red "X" into pieces (about 20) and hid them all over the house along with gold foil chocolate coins. The other map was put away for reference. I then made a third map with all sorts of red "X's" on it and cut it into pieces and hid them everywhere too. (This way each child would have a fair chance to find a real map piece and no one would know where the treasure was buried.) \*I took the jigsaw piece with the correct red "X" on it and hid it in one of the black balloons to be used for the cannon ball burst game. 

I had made "pirate loot" bags by buying a different glitter covered color felt squares $.29/each (one for each child) I folded down the top about 1" in the top fold I laid a long piece of gold string and stitched across the  bottom of the fold to hold the string in place. I folded each square in half length wise and  then sewed up the side and across the bottom. When turned right side out these were sparkly draw string bags. I gave one to each child when they arrived and told them that coins and map pieces had been scattered about the house and they needed to find them and keep them in their bags until we needed them. They had fun looking for the coins and map pieces.

Then we played a game of Pirate bingo. Each child was given a computer generated picture of a pirate ship with (5 out of 25) different pictures from Peter Pan in the 5 port holes of the ship. The matching pictures were placed in a hat and drawn out one by one and shown to the children. The first child to cover all 5 port hole pictures and cry "Shiver me timbers" won.  Next we played a game called Buried Treasure: the children sit in a circle and music is played as they pass around a large wrapped present. When the music stops, whoever is holding the package gets to unwrap it. If they find another wrapped box the music starts again and everyone passes the present until the music stops, then that player gets to unwrap it once...this goes on until the prize is finally reached. The children tend to get really excited about finding the present and there is lots of giggling and carrying on I wrapped the package about 8 times and finally they got a small pouch that contained a Disney Pin of Captain Hook and two gold coins.

We then stopped to eat: The Table for the children had been set with a blue cloth decorated with strings of gold & red beads, and gold seashells. I had a wooden pirate ship and small wooden chest I had purchased on sale at the store. We had small sausages wrapped in puff pastry, chicken "gold" nuggets, "pirate" fries, fruit salad,jello and grog(soda)for the children. The adults ate in the other room they had blackened chicken croissants, fresh fruit salad, french fries, & grilled vegetables.

After dinner, we went downstairs and played pirate plunder which consisted of putting out a large plastic table cloth and covering it with pieces of wrapped candy, gold coins, candy necklaces, & wonderballs. Each child was given two rings (these were embroidery hoops) they had to stand at a certain spot and toss the rings at the cloth whatever prize the ring covered they got to keep. They had a lot of fun doing this and took many turns (it is harder than it looks) and they got to add the goodies to their bags. Then we played pin the X on the treasure map. I printed a large map of Never Land on  9 pieces of paper and taped them to our door (which is metal) I printed large red X's on the computer and cut them out and stuck small magnets on the back. I also printed out a small one page version of the map with a red X on it and rolled it up and tied it with a ribbon. Each child was given an X with their name on it and asked to place it on the map wherever they thought the treasure might be buried. I then unrolled the real map and the child who's X was closest to the X on my small map was the winner!

Then we were ready for the Treasure chest piñata. (My best friend bought it for the party) I had my husband modify it as I did not want 4 children swinging bats in the house! He cut a trap door in the bottom of the chest and we taped many brightly colored ribbons to the inside of the door but not so they would pull it open, one ribbon was firmly tied to the door so it would open the bottom of the piñata and let the candy spill out. We let the children take turns picking and pulling a ribbon until the piñata finally opened!! Then the children grabbed all the could and stuffed it in their bags! This piñata is now reusable!!

Now it was time for the treasure hunt, I had the children pull out all their map pieces and I brought out the original map. We checked each piece against the real map and taped each piece that "fit" in place. When we were finished there were still a few map pieces missing so.... we had our next game, the cannonball bust!! I had blown up many black balloons before the party in each balloon I placed a small blank piece of paper or a piece of the treasure map and one piece of paper that had a Red X that said "winner on it. The children took turns grabbing a balloon and sitting or bouncing on it until it popped and grabbed the paper in the balloon. The one who got the plain paper with the red X won a prize. A few children found map pieces and we checked these against the map and sure enough there was the piece with X marks the spot....the treasure was buried in Mermaid Lagoon (the garage!)

They all raced to the garage and found a Styrofoam chest we had painted to look like a treasure chest inside there were goody  bags for each child containing a small present just for them! Then it was time for presents, cake and ice cream. We went upstairs and my son opened his gifts, then we served his cake. It was a map of Never Land complete with Hangman's tree, Mermaid Lagoon, Indian Camp, Crocodile Creek and Captain Hook's ship!!! After cake and ice cream it was getting late so everyone headed home happy and excited! I still had some balloons for a pirate sword fight and walk the plank game that we never got around too!

I got compliments and thank yous from the kids AND adults all saying they can't wait till next year!! The next day my son said, "Mom, that sure was a cool party we had!!" I should say that all the prizes and decorations I picked up at the dollar stores and on sale over the few months prior to the birthday so it wasn't expensive just a little time consuming, but the memories are SO WORTH IT!!!!

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