SCHOFIELD FAMILY BLOG: Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirates life party for me!

On April 3rd, Pierce turned 7 years old! There's something about that number that a parent thinks, "Where did those seven years go?" It's that "too old for Elmo, but not old enough for Star Trek" age. Anyway, we decided to let Pierce have a friend party this year, and he wanted a pirate theme. I went to the local dollar stores and found some great prizes for the loot/ treasure box, and decorations to add a great touch. I also found an idea for a pirate cake online which turned out so great! When the friends arrived, I had purchased some really cheap stretchy fabric at the store to make pirate head scarves for all the boys. They then were able to pick a pirate name out of a cap. We added the child's name to the pirate name so they turned out something like this, "Captain Pierce Barbosa", "Patchy Dayton", "Jakey Jones". The kids thought that was pretty cool. We then taught the kids some pirate talk to use throughout the party like, "Aye, Matey", "here, here me heartys", "Raise the jolly roger up yonder pole", "Thar be pirates a comin", "Thar be booty in that thar box"! The kids got a kick out of talking like pirates. We then played "Patch the eye of the pirate." I realized we forgot to get that game at the store, so five minutes before the party started, I hurried to draw our patch-eyed friend to play the game...didn't turn out too bad! After, we played tug-of war outside, got pirate tattoos, and had the kids draw their own pirate flags for their ships, and went on a treasure hunt. Then the kids got to eat the cake with ice cream and play with their loot bags. It was great! I think we all had a great time!