Ahoy Matey's! Captain Riley Turns 6!

ARRRRGGH!  It's Captain Riley's 6th Birthday and he's invited all his friends to be a part of his crew!  We had 10 kids plus Riley and Kendall on Saturday.  Kevin and Cara were able to attend the party as well - they were a fantastic help!  Kevin took all the pictures for me and Cara helped me with the kids.  Here is the invitation we gave to his buddies:

I used some distressing ink to make them appear old and worn like an old treasure map.  

We set up a "plank" for the kids and had foam swords for them to battle each other!

This was some our handsome looking crew.

To help them look more like pirates, we had them make their own pirate hats.  I had the foam fronts pre-cut for them and then gave the kids the skull & cross bones (cut from my cricut and then run through my sticker maker) and glue sticks to attach their feathers and sequins.  Then we stapled them to a construction paper ring around their heads -  next time I think I'll get some oaktag instead so it is less likely to rip.  We were jammin' to some pirate tunes while we were makin' our hats.  Each pirate also got some necklaces to wear, because what self-respectin' pirate wouldn't be showing off some bling from his/her lastest treasure!

For lunch, our menu consisted of pirate ship hot dogs (each one had a sail), gold coin chicken nuggets, cannon balls (grapes), goldfish, Pirate Booty, and grog (capri sun).

Riley and two of his buddies

Getting ready to go on a treasure hunt!  There was buried treasure in the house that the crew had to work together to find.  We originally planned for the party to be outdoors, but since Mother Nature forgot that this is MAY, she went and dumped some rain and snow on us so we were stuck inside for this activity.

One of the crew reading the next clue...

Getting closer to finding the treasure...

Found it!  Now to get their loot bags to divide their treasure.

The treasure was in the form of a pinata...

Again, since the weather didn't cooperate, we had to break open the pinata in the garage.  We blindfolded everyone and spun them around.  Andy had fun lifting the pinata up and down to challenge them even more!

Everyone was cheering for each buccaneer!

Isn't her little pirate costume adorable?

Another pirate trying his luck!

The cheering section with their loot bags, ready to spring into action when the chest gets broken open!

This little buccaneer did some serious damage to the pinata!

A piece or two started to fall out, but still no luck!

More good attempts

Will he be the one to crack it open?

Our last little pirate was the one who busted it open!  Everyone got a chance to hit the pinata!

TREASURE!  The crew filling up their loot bags!

Time for cake!  This is the pirate ship cake that I made for Riley for his party.  The ocean is a white almond flavored cake and the ship was a chocolate cake.  It had cannon balls (malted milk balls), powder kegs (rootbeer barrels) and cannons (chocolate candy).  The sand was made from brown sugar.  I was thrilled at how it turned out after the stress I went through on Friday with my first attempt.

Making a wish...For more LEGOS?

Every buccaneer got his/her own telescope in their loot bags as well as ring pops and pirate tattoos.

After cake, we gave each pirate their own bag of pvc parts to create their very own mini-marshmellow shooter.  I showed them how to do it, but Andy and Kevin were also helpful in offering assistance.

After the shooters were assembled, we took them outside (thankfully the sun decided to pop out at that exact time) and each pirate got a small bag of mini-marshmellows to try out their shooters.

Kendall getting some QT with Aunt Cara - by the way, she can say "Cara" now!

Kendall had more fun eating the marshmellows than trying to shoot them!

Andy was shooting them at the kids - he had as much fun as they did!

All in all, it was a great party.  The pirates were well behaved and seemed to enjoy themselves.  Riley had a blast and that was the most important thing.  We are thankful that he's made friends with some great kids.

Happy Birthday Riley!