Yo Ho! Let's Go {Celebrate}!

Reed's birthday weekend celebration began today when we hosted a small gathering of friends to wish Reed a super happy #4.  Just last week Reed finalized his plan to have a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party.  He has been convinced, since Drew's birthday, that he was going to have a Sonic party.  I wasn't against it, but Reed has no real excitement or interest in Sonic so I tried to steer him another direction.  He then wanted a Lightning McQueen party, but when push came to shove, he settled on Jake.  And that was totally the right choice for him and his current infatuation for said pirates.

Any good party needs to set the stage.

Pirate shirt?  Check!

Pirate bandana?  Check! 

Pirate patch?  Check!

Pirate ARRRRRGHH?  Check!

First mate?  Check!

This party was really fun to put together.  And while I would never call the party planning process "stressful"... this one was the easiest and most fun to pull together.

First up, the invite.

Kraft cardstock + Photoshop + Google search for Jake image + my Cricut.
Inspiration taken from HERE and HERE.

The cake & decor.

A big cake.  Just as Reed requested.

Inspired by THIS CAKE. 

If it looks complicated, it really wasn't.  A few layers, yes, but no fancy pants piping was required.  We had the Jake figures (Reed got them for Christmas) and I used leaves (cut using the Cricut) hot glued onto the Piroutte wafer sticks for the trees.  Strategically sprinkle on some brown sugar, and there you go.

Homemade banner & crepe paper.  I have mad streamer skills, ya'll.

I have learned that a lot of food just isn't really required, especially for a small mid-afternoon party.  Cake and ice cream will suffice...but it's just so fun!  And thematic!

We served:

"Scully want a cracker?" and cheese

"Catch of the Day" goldfish (chocolate graham and cheddar)

"Cannonballs" (grapes)

"Treasure Maps" (more Piroutte wafer sticks)

"Pirate Planks" (pretzel rods)

Water

The pirate booty & pirate games.

Patches, bandanas & tattoos for our guests.

Knowing that there would be fewer and younger friends coming to Reed's party, I thought that THIS would be the perfect activity to do together --- decorate your own treasure chest!

I picked up the boxes at Hobby Lobby and the pirate stickers at Target.

Along with the stickers, we used sequins, foam alphas & glitter crayons (all in my craft surplus) to decorate our boxes.

I think all of the kids totally loved it!  They were all super involved in decking out their treasure chests.

And what's a treasure chest without treasure to fill it up?

Time to dig for lost jewels and gold!

I had seen this idea on a couple different blogs, but they had been outdoors and used sand as the medium with which to bury their treasures.  Not so much indoors.  So I came up with the idea of using shredded paper in a really big box.  I just asked for paper bags during my weekly errand to the grocery store, ran them through our shredder, and tossed them in the box.

Minus the whole shredded-paper-all-over-the-floor, it turned out great!

Each kid had to dig for their own treasure, and they could fill their box with two necklaces, one ring, and as much "gold" candy as they could fit in their little hands.

We also fashioned a plank similiar to this one, and we had a bunch of black balloons blown up to be cannonballs.  The kids liked chuckin' the balloons at each other more than walking the plank...and I'm not gonna lie - so did the two dads that were here!

After all that excitement, we ate.

Reed placing his candles.

Being sung to.

So shy!

And then gifts.

We are so blessed to have found friends here.

We are so blessed that they are as excited as we are about birthdays.

We are so blessed to have this little big guy.

Good-bye, three.

Hello, four!