Since Witten and Reese's birthdays are only 6 weeks apart, Witten's falls around Mother's Day, and parties are expensive, we decided to have a combined pirate themed party for them this year. We went to our neighborhood park, which only charges $15 for residents of the town...WHAT?!? It was the perfect location. I bought this pirate flag and Mitch and my father-in-law got the pole, cut it to size, and fitted the flag on it for me. We stuck it in the sandbox, and it was so cute! Here's Witten and Jordan.
Reese looked absolutely adorable in her pirate outfit. I bought the tutu on Etsy, and my mom made the top. I just think she's the cutest pirate I've ever seen!
Witten looked so cute too. We decided to go with jean shorts because it is June, and it's hot. I think it looked perfect because they were frayed at the bottom. He was like a little pirate castaway.
I tried my hand and making a pirate ship cake, and I think it turned out amazing! I am so proud of it, and it wasn't really as hard as I expected it to be!
Here's the fish and chips.
Cannon balls are a must!
The fruity booty salad was perfect on a hot day. (It was almost gone by the time the party was over.)
I think the table turned out great. We had water bottles personalized with the kids names on them. We also had organic juice boxes. I could tell that some of the kids weren't a fan because they weren't full of sugar. My kids LOVED them because they rarely get to drink anything other than water and 2 cups of milk a day. This was a huge treat for them.
I mean...ADORABLE!!!
I wish I could have captured a better picture of everything, but at least we can see the whole set up.
At the last second, I drew a ridiculous treasure map of the park. Luckily, the kids thought it was AWESOME, and my nephew was there to help guide them on their treasure hunt. Autumn was a huge help too. She was able to figure out the whole map, which was impressive given my extremely NON-impressive drawing skills!
The first stop was climbing but the ladder and sliding down the slide. At the bottom, my mom gave the girls a pirate bracelet. I was so glad that we had enough treasure bags for each kid. At first, we were going to have one bag per family, but it worked out that some didn't show up because then each kid got their own bag.
Next, they crossed the bridge where they got pirate bandanas (gender appropriate of course!)
Then it was back over the bridge to the sandbox where they had to dig for pirate treasure (hundreds of coins and necklaces that had been buried in (and thrown on top of) the sand. I bet park goers were digging our pirate treasure out of that sandbox all summer!
Finally, they finished up back in the pavilion where they each got a bag full of jewels. They were supposed to get a necklace with a pirate coin on it too, but when we took them out of the bag, they were all tangled. Most of the kids weren't patient enough to wait for them to get untangled, and who can blame them. There was food to be eaten!
Reese enjoyed her peg leg.
Finally, it was time for cake!
After cake, we did the pirate piñata. It was SO hard! Eventually, my nephew Cole had to break it down for us. We let all of the younger party goes get in a few turns first though.
It was tons of fun, but people were dropping like flies by the end, so we grabbed a group shot quickly before anyone else left. Reese hates the sand, so we had to let her stand outside of the sandbox.
Of course we had to get a picture of the two birthday kids.
And the family shot...
And finally, the birthday loot! (All of the people we do birthday parties with open presents at home because the kids aren't too interested in watching someone else open gifts, so we've adopted this method too. It's worked out well. Especially since people seem to want to take off so quickly sometimes.
We heard a few kids telling their parents that this was the best birthday party they had every been to. Mission accomplished. So glad that we could make it fun for all. We certainly had fun watching the kids!
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