Low cost Pirate theme birthday?

[pigletto]

My ds would like a pirate themed party for his sixth birthday. He absolutely insists there must be a treasure hunt. I would like to do it outside. The weather can be a bit unpredictable in March here though. We could have 3 ft of snow or it could be warm.
Any and all theme ideas are welcome as well as a way to keep costs down (my sister is a pastry chef student and will be making the cake).
Thank you for your suggestions.

 

[paysensmom]

My son had a pirate themed birthday party a few years ago. I got some great pirate decorations and favors for pretty cheap from oriental trading. Of course each kid got an eye patch, fake ear ring and bandana and a pirate sword. They got one at a time because they were "buried treasure"! They got a map and they had to go and find the loot. So with each X on the map, they found one of the items. We did it all outside and the kids had a blast! Be sure to get a picture of them all together in their pirate gear! Oh and for the cake, I made the one that is on the family fun website of a pirate ship! I always make my kids a mini cake, so I just made a large and a small one! He loved it and so did everyone else!

 

[StephMK]

DS did a pirate party a few years ago too. We got skull & crossbone tattoos, treasure map placemats and supplies from Birthday Express. He had a treasure chest pinata and that was the "treasure" after the hunt. The swords & eye patches were not expensive and that became the goody bag along w/the pinata candy.

March might be tough but we filled a kiddie pool with sand & buried little toys & those gold coins in it and had a water balloon fight with balloons that looked like bombs. If you have a garage or big rubbermaid bin, you could do something similar inside with a tarp put down for the sand. The water balloons could be thrown at a target instead of each other.

You could also do pin the eye patch on the pirate - just draw your own and some form of walk the plank game.

I would think you could add on the invite - pirates need to be prepared for any weather. They could still have a hunt outside, just adds a little more adventure if there's snow!

 

[perriwinkleblue]

FYI, I stopped in Dollartree today and they had all kinds of pirate birthday supplies. They had paper pirate hats, eye patches, paper plates shaped like pirate's shirts, centerpieces, favors etc...


If you don't have Dollartree nearby I think you can order "party packs" online

 

[Swimalie]

I did a pirate themed birthday party for my 4 year old son last year. We did things on a budget but all out at the same time. For the invitations, I bought parchment paper cardstock, designed the cards (I'm a graphic artist) and printed them at home. Then I burned the edges. I mailed them in semi-see-through envelopes. The invitations had pirate wording of that I had rhymed and in the background was a map drawn.

Decorations, I found some at Party City, some at The Dollar Store and some at Party Co. We found balloons that had skull and cross bones and we had them inflated that morning at a local store. We made bandanas. We bought fabric that was like they would wear back then. We then cut it in the right size and have one bandana and eye patch for each kid upon entering.

For the treasure hunt I bought little things like Wikki Stix at AC Moore, 4 pack of Crayolas, pirate pencils, erasers, etc at Party City. We put everything in ziploc bags since the ground is wet in the mornings here. We did a Pin the Patch on the Pirate game (keep in mind these were 3 and 4 year olds), too.

Our cake was a Costco plain one and we had bought the pirate decorations of another cake and decorated the cake ourselves. You are lucky that your sister will make the cake. I bet it will look awesome.

I hope this helped. We did this last March and some of it I'm forgetting, I'm sure.

 

[englishteacha]

A fun game to play would be a clothing relay. Get some adult sized clothes and tatter them to look like pirate clothes. You can find various sets of rules online.