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Pirate Girl Party -6yr- Cardboard Pirate Ship

March 2009

Vickie in Dubois, Pa USA

Honorable Mention

This was for a 6 year old girl but could be adapted to any age.   

INVITES Message in a bottle rolled and tied with twine in an empty water bottle with some small shells, small plastic coins and metallic pirate confetti tucked in all topped off with an actual cork.   

DECORATIONS Plain empty boxes of all shapes and sizes for cargo with things like spices, jewels, etc. written on them. I even took one box and scored it so that it would fold into a sort of circle and turned that into a rum barrel (could be a root beer barrel depending on the age group) I used a brake line tube from the auto parts store as a sign post with signs leading to real and imaginary ports of call, like Tortuga, Neverland, and my favorite NOMANISAN Island (say it fast)..

The ship was 3 sides of a washer box cut and painted to look like a pirate ship named after the birthday child (exp.-the S.S. Susie)  At the request of the girl captain it had flowers and hearts incorporated into the design.  The mast was a brake line tube with another cut down and taped and tied crosswise.  I added a sail (an old tablecloth with a hole that I was going to toss anyway) I tied it up to look like they hadn't unfurled the sail yet.  This was for ease of transport to the party place and so the kids didn't pull on it.  A black fun foam flag with a simple white skull and crossbones made of paper and some cute pink hearts went on top. You could get as fancy as you want with the flag. There are lots of real ones on-line that you could adapt for what you want.

I took pics of each girl with their parrot (toilet paper tube with feathers and elastic loop) , rhinestone eyepatch (foam with glued on jewels) and hat in the ship to print later for them.   Metal Xmas tree stands served as a base for the tubes since they had the screws to hold the poles in place.  I poured about 5 inches of sand in the bottom of them to give them more stability.  For the entry into the party I laid out a blue tarp with some boards as a plank to walk on. I added lots of shades of blue streamers hanging in the doorway so that it looked like you were walking out of the water onto the ship. Also for decorations there where tons of hot pink and black balloons and streamers, a pirate flag, a very large ship's wheel and anchor cut out of cardboard and colored to look more real, a blow up monkey, a parrot (not real) and some cheap pirate cut outs from the party store.  I had a Pirates of the Caribbean Music CD playing in the background thru the whole party. 

ACTIVITIES Telescopes-paper towel tubes with blue saran wrap on one end secured with a rubber band and tons of foam and regular stickers for them decorate to their hearts content. Gift Opening--Spin the message in the bottle to see whose got opened next great way to avoid the ME ME ME factor. 

GAMES Cannonball Pop- Black balloons enough for each girl with slips of paper in them to indicate the prize won.  The non-winning ones were left blank to save time preparing. The kids had a blast trying to pop those things.  Trick is don't blow them up too much to make it last longer.  Musical Islands Green posterboard cut into island shapes (not all the same size or shape but big enuf for the kids to sit on) Label them with numbers and tape to the floor in loose circle.  Have corresponding slips of paper to randomly pick when the music stops.  If your number is picked you are BANISHED from the game.  Remove that island so they don't try to sit on it again.  I had a few more islands then kids to make it more fun.  If an empty islands number was picked it went back into the can and the pirates left got a pardon. 

Capt. Hook Take styrofoam cups and poke the non-hook end of a candy cane thru it. Buy the wrapped kind and don't unwrap unless you want a sticky mess (I picked up the candy canes on clearance after Xmas they keep forever) We put a bowl of the twisty pretzels out and they each had 30 seconds in turn to try to hook as many as they could.  They were allowed to remove them with the other hand but not allowed to put the non-hook hand in the bowl. This game is harder then it sounds.  Pin the Pirate on the Map I found a simple clip art of a pirate girl online and printed her out on cardstock and put a letter/number sticker on each and did the simple pin the tail game but with a treasure map and you had to get her closest to the X-marks the spot.  Each girl had to remember their letter because later in the party I pulled one from pre-made slips of paper to determine the best dressed pirate.  I had an extra prize to give away and the invite said to come dressed in your best pirate garb. 

SNACKS We held the party from 1-3 so just cake and snacks were served.  I made and decorated the cake at home.  Instead of ice cream we had Jewels on a Sword -fruit pieces skewered on the ends of those little plastic swords (they were sharp so I took a lighter and melted the ends round a bit for safety)  I had cupcake liners of Cannonballs (whoppers candy), Goldfish crackers, and fish fruit snacks on the tables for them to munch on.  We served RUM punch.  Ginger ale and tan cream soda mixed. The ginger cut the sweetness and diluted the color of the cream soda so it really did look like rum. 

FAVORS I got the treasure chests kid's meal boxes (and the pirate hats) from a fast food fish place and filled them with all sorts of piratey type things like beads, plastic rings, tattoos, stickers, and candy.  Pretty much if it  had anything to do with pirates it went in there.  It only cost around $1 a box to fill since I got the multipacks of things at the dollar store and the boxes were free

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