.: Parties

April 9, 2013

Reagan's 4th Birthday Party - A Pirate Adventure

Saturday was Reagan's 4th Birthday Party.

His current favorite show is "Jake and the Never Land Pirates", so he requested that for his party theme. I got super nerdy and dove right in.

Here are the invites I sent out to the guests.

I burned the edges to look more "pirate-like".

Yep. That was an adventure.

We had the party at the park we had his second birthday party at.

And just like that party, this day was crazy windy.

Which made for a REALLY fun time decorating.

Good thing their were no kids around because I sure dropped a lot of bad words.

Since the party was at 2:00, I didn't do much food.

I had snacks (Pirates Booty, Pretzels- Swords, and Cheese Puffs- Cannon Balls).

For the kids I had juice pouches - Jolly Roger Juice.

And water and soda for the adults.

My sister makes the best cupcakes and I put her to work every birthday.

This year was no exception.

Reagan requested chocolate cupcakes. Yum.

Thanks Meg.

This table was full of the pirate "loot".

More info on that below.

Each kid got a pirate eye patch, a pirate map, and a pirate sack for their loot.

I figured the kids are getting old enough for a few activities.

I wrote a super nerdy script (hello- teacher much?) asking the kids if they wanted to join Jake's Pirate Crew. Our crew needed to solve 5 pirate problems (just like the show). After each pirate problem they would get a gold doubloon to add to to treasure.

I made this big map to show the kids where we needed to travel for our pirate adventure.

The kids each got their own map as well.

Our first pirate problem was to walk the plank off Captain Hook's ship, the Jolly Roger.

I sent Nick to Home Depot for a wood plank, some buckets, and rope.

He built this plank and I wrote the words.

I bought a blue tarp to be the Never Sea and looked and looked for a crocodile to be Tic Tock Croc but was unable to find one!

It was so cute to see the kids all walking the plank!

They loved it.

The next pirate problem was the pin the hook on Captain Hook.

I drew a Captain Hook without his hook on a piece of poster board.

I cut out hooks with each kid's name on it.

The kids had to cover their eyes with a blind fold and then try and place the hook in the right spot. It wasn't very tricky and they were almost all in the same vicinity.

The third pirate problem was to be in a cannon ball fight in Mermaid Lagoon.

I strung a "net" between two trees and blew up 20 balloons to use as cannon balls. I envisioned that there would be two teams tossing the balloons back and forth. The team with all of the balloons on the other side would win. But it totally didn't work! The balloons popped the second they landed on the grass. So the game quickly turned into "everyone pop your balloon!"

The fourth pirate problem was to dig for buried treasure at Shipwreck Beach.

Mr. Smee had hidden necklaces and gold coins in the sand and they needed to dig it back up.

My dad and I hid the necklaces and gold in the sand and left out shovels and rakes for the kids to use to find them. They LOVED this activity!

The last pirate problem was to break down the treasure chest pinata that Sharky and Bones had hung high up.

The kids each got a couple turns to swing at the pinata before it broke.

I had filled the pinata with candy and left over Jake goodies from their goody bags.

After the pirate adventure we enjoyed cupcakes.

Then the kids had free reign on the playground.

It was so fun to watch them interacting and playing on the equipment.

The kids all got a goody bag filled with Jake and the Neverland goodies (a coloring book, stickers, tattoos, pencils, etc.) to add to their treasure (pinata goodies, gold doubloons, necklaces, eye patches, maps, etc.)

Here are some other pictures from the afternoon!

Hot and tired boys taking a drink break!

Adults enjoying the shade!

Happy Birthday Reagan!

Doing our yearly "pose with the cupcake" picture.

Make a wish Reagan!

Reagan and his buddy Milo.

After cleaning up, most of Reagan's grandparents and the Scott's came back to our house to watch him open presents. He was so excited for all of his gifts!