Now I went a little into prep before with the bandannas, where I ordered and bought my items from and the cute Pirate Ship we used as a center piece. Now I’ll share with you the rest of my preperation…

Here are our finished treasure chests. We filled these with the goodies included from Birthday Express. We then fit all 18 of the chests into a cardboard box (boring, I know) which was the Treasure Chest to be buried. I buried it under a giant pile of leaves and sticks in a secluded area of our yard.

When each child arrived they were given their bandanna and foam sword. They could choose their water from the platter if they wished or could wait. It was a very hot day so I labeled waters for each child that I had sitting out on the main table. Pizza arrived at the same time as the kids, so most ate while waiting for others and then they all had a few minutes to play and get comfortable with the atmosphere.

We set everything up in a scavenger hunt/obstacle course style. We made a scavanger hunt list, the kids had to follow the clues to lead them to their next obstacle which would end at the buried treasure.

To begin they had to Walk the Plank. In our case, as you can see, we mounted a plank over a baby pool with cement blocks. I’m sure there are other ways you can do this and possibly over a larger pool, but we had too many children to the amount of adults and I didn’t want any little ones falling into a large pool.

They were then led to Mark the X on the Spot. I drew a silly map and created an X with velcro to mark the spot with. We used an extra bandanna to tie around their eyes, spun them around and let them mark the spot. We nailed the map to the tree that it is leaning on here.

Next it was to the sandbox to find their compasses and the beginning of their treasure. I spread plastic compasses and gold coins across the top layer of the sandbox. I didn’t bury them because there were going to be 18 possible guests and I wasn’t sure about 18 kids all digging in the sandbox at once.

From there they used their compass to point them in the direction of the treasure. They all seemed to figure it out at once and were so excited!

After each child chose their own treasure chest we labeled them and then moved on to the Pinata. From there it was cake and presents. I could not find what I was looking for in a Pirate style cake locally so I made my own sheet cake. I bought the specific cardboard to place it on and baked 2 9×12 in cakes, 1 white 1 chocolate. I had to trim them down to make sure they were going to be smooth under the homemade buttercream frosting. I then topped the cake with a Pirate Lego set that I found on sale at Target a couple months ago.

This year for Ryan’s 5th Birthday we decided to go with the Pirate theme. I first was introduced to the idea at Polkadots and Pirates. Now here we are 2 days away from the party itself with Ryan’s actual Birthday tomorrow. I have it mostly together, what I’m doing that is, and have mostly everything in my posession. I just need to get it all put together. In case any of you out there were planning on hosting a Pirate Party I wanted to share with you what we are doing along the way to make it that much more fun and easy.

I ordered the Pinata and Party Favor (including the goodies) boxes from Birthday Express. When I received the package I thought I saw a package of what looked like bandannas that had possibly been included with the gift boxes. Well, I should have inspected a little further, because I just opened everything up 1 night ago to realize there are no bandannas. Not the fault of Birthday Express, my own assumption.

Now that I’ve gone ahead and made my own bandannas, I’m going to save you the hassle and tell you to talk to Rachel at Golden Sew Cute. Make sure you plan in advance because Rachel is a busy busy girl, with good reason. She is amazing and I can promise you will love what you order. She is still making Ryan’s personalized bandanna.

Aside from what comes in the Party Favor boxes, I wanted a few additional prizes for some of the games that we will talk about later. I found compasses, gems and coins at Wal*mart. I found Pirate themed make your own necklaces at Jo Ann Fabrics. I also found a Pirate ship from Creative Kids at Jo Anns that Ryan and I put together and will be great for decoration on one of the tables. I like Jo Ann Fabrics because if you sign up for their mailing list you can get some killer coupons. I was able to get 50% off one item and then 20% off my entire order. This is also where I purchased the fabric for the bandannas.