Pirate Party!!

I seem to have overspent! But we all had a fantastic time and if I did the same party again, I at least know where I can cut down on expenses. Unfortunately, in a year’s time I am sure it won’t be pirates but another theme to cater for!

INVITATIONS
Mummy bought some Pirate invitations (24) from Party Planet (£9). Onto these we added Pirate stickers (£1.50) prior to delivery. I stipulated on the invitations that this was a Pirate Fancy Dress Party and that there would be a bouncy castle and hot dogs!! Of everyone who we invited only one child could not attend. Nearer the time daddy added a couple more (smaller) children to the invites. A total of 23 children attended and 32 adults. This included a couple (without children) who we had not seen for a while and invited them if they fancied it – which they did!

As Jamie was three I decided to invite more of his age group than we did to his 1st birthday – which was just an excuse to invite everyone we knew to a party! So I asked 4 of the children that he has grown up with at baby signing. We did invite family members who were older, and a few friends with older children so I think we had enough ‘older’ children so that no one felt on their own.

FANCY DRESS
I bought Jamie a Party like a Pirate T shirt (£9.98 inc.p&p). The hat I had bought for him (£5.99) he chose not to wear and wore a cheap one instead (which came with a sword at approx. £2.50). He wore his vampire (stripy) trousers left over from Halloween, and his wellies from Nana which are decorated with skull and crossbones. He also ended up with one of my old tassely scarf’s tied around his waist. Most of the children who came did dress up for the occasion. Some bought costumes and others were handmade. One child asked to come as Spiderman but on the day came as Bob the Builder!! We also had quite a few of the adults dressing up which was fantastic! There were an awful lot of stripy tops! Certainly all of the family dressed up and it was very amusing prior to the party getting 4 adults and 2 children all ready; arguing over who was hogging the mirror! Even though the party was simply across the road, for some reason we all took the car! During the party there was a lot of swapping with regards to clothes and props – especially with regards to the large inflatable parrot that Auntie Hannah brought and the couple of inflatable pirate hats! I did buy some extra Pirate Eye Patches x8 (£2.79) but completely forgot about them until the end.

I wore a skull and crossbones bandana (£2.95) white shirt, black waistcoat and skirt, Pirate Tights – black and white with skull and crossbones (£3.48) and my black ankle boots. I also painted my nails black and wore my large hoop earrings and skull bracelet. Daddy wore the hat bought for Jamie (£5.99), a red paisley bandana (£1.74 inc.p&p), a stripped T shirt, jeans and books, a fake gold earring (£3.25 inc.p&p) and lots of my jewellery (necklaces and bracelets). The hat daddy was due to wear (£4.88 inc.p&p) turned out to be the same as Nana’s, so perhaps it was better he wore Jamie’s. I bought an inflatable parrot (£2.65 inc.p&p) which was supposed to sit on your shoulder. Unfortunately we could not get it to stay up!

I had promised a Prize for the best fancy dress! However, I forgot! So I gave an Easter egg to each of the helpers and gave the other one to the Clark family for the best family fancy dress! As usual, I did a photo book with all the pictures of everyone so we can look back – and perhaps pinch ideas if we have another pirate party! Although I spent an awful lot on the party, most of the decoration is now in Jamie’s room so it wasn’t entirely wasted. Jamie now has a rather full Fancy dress box, and he and daddy have been doing a lot of dressing up!

DECORATION
The cost of the church hall - which we previously hired for Jamie’s 1st birthday and then the Christmas party - was £26.25 (£10.50 x2.5hrs) as we simply hired the large hall and the kitchen. Although we paid from 2pm to 4.30pm we were actually allowed half an hour either side for setting up and clearing away.

I bought some skull and crossbones pirate bunting (£8.54) which now resides in Jamie’s room. I decorated the tables with skull and crossbones pirate table confetti (£6.12) and put the rest inside the party bags. On reflection confetti was not a good idea as we had to clean it up afterwards! I also put up 4 Happy Birthday Banners from Jamie’s previous parties. We had a number of Pirate Balloons (£3.29) and loads of cheap plain balloons (£1). Thanks to all those who came early to get them blown up and to help with the setting up of the hall. I did buy a bag of Party poppers (£1). Unfortunately it was a condition of hire that no party poppers or silly string should be used on the bouncy castle so we kept the poppers hidden.

I had planned to put a pirate flag (£1.70) in each of the hot dog sausages – so as to look like a pirate boat! It was so manic trying to sort the food out that I completely forgot. On reflection, perhaps giving 3 year olds sharp sticks was not the best of ideas!

BOUNCY CASTLE
I can totally recommend www.bendysbouncers.com/ and their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ castle was superb value at £65 (daily rate). They came at 1.30pm and I requested they come and take the castle down at 3.45pm so that the children could eat their hot dogs and of course sing Happy Birthday to Jamie without the distraction. The only trouble was getting them off! There was only one accident and that was when Ella took off her shoes and slipped on the floor. It would be fare to say that all of the children loved the castle.

TATTOOS
Uncle Dean started ‘tattooing’ some of the children (£4.80) but once the older children had worked out how to do it there was no stopping them! All that was needed was a small bowl of water and a piece of flannel type cloth to soak the tattoo off the backing paper. I think most of the children ended up with one or more tattoos. A few of them even had them on their face – which I would not recommend as it took ages to get rid of the one Jamie got at Lucy’s! I had bought two types of tattoo – Fairy (36) and Scary Pirate (72). But the girls wanted the scary pirates as much as the boys wanted the fairy ones! I also put a couple in each party bag.

COLOURING TABLE
I got some super pirate pictures from www.netmums.com which I was then able to photocopy and bought two packs of felt tips (£1.85). Quite a few of the children had a breather from the castle at the colouring table and, as predicted, it was good for children to take their minds off any injuries they might have had!

MUSIC
I kept asking all week what people thought about the music and whether anyone had any tracks / mix etc. suitable for a children’s party. In the end we used Christine’s MP3 player and plugged it into one of daddy’s amps. Luckily there was lots of Abba and other ‘dance’ tracks.

TABLEWARE
I bought 32 Pirate Plates (£10) 64 Pirate Napkins (£10) a few Pirate cups (£2) 3 Pirate Tablecloths (£5) and 2 Pirate Bowls (£6) 4 the crisps.

FOOD
We gave the children Hotdogs in rolls. I bought 12 tins with 8 hot dogs in each – a total of 96 hot dogs (£7.08). There were some left over but I think all the children and any adults who wanted hot dogs did get one! I also purchased little pizzas, large ketchup, and Hula hoops and cheese balls. I left 1 bottle of squash in the kitchen and bought 4 packs of 8 Fruit Shoots at £2 per pack. I should have bought more! For the adults I provided tea, coffee, sugar, milk (6pints) and a box of wine and some little bottles of lager for the end of the party. Total spent on food and drink other than hot dogs was £46.13

CAKE
I don’t think Jamie actually realised the party was for him until he was asked to blow out the candles on his cake! Originally Kerry was going to do a pirate treasure chest for us with lots of goodies; including chocolate coins inside, but as we could not find any chocolate coins we changed the design of the cake to the one shown. About a day before the party, we finally found some chocolate coins so I filled Jamie’s bucket with them. I used Jamie’s Pirate Bucket – which we bought last year in Lyme Regis – to keep in all the Booty! I had lots of little Chocolate eggs and gold coins. I had also found some Easter coins at Asda with bunnies and chicks on. Total price of all the chocolate purchased was somewhere near £18.

GAMES
As for games; a few had been suggested such as Pin the X on the treasure, Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate, or Pin the Parrot on the Pirate, but the bouncy castle seemed to be enough!

PRESENTS
Jamie was very lucky and received a present from just about everyone who attended. He also got a lot of cards this year - 33 to be precise. He got a really cool card from Uncle Paul that made pirate noises, a pirate one from Dean and Christine with stickers, and a number of cards with badges and also pictures to colour. I never knew they made so many pirate cards!!

PARTY BAGS
The party bags (£3.80) matched the invitations. Inside I put balloons, bubbles (£2.79), a pirate colouring book (£2.49) and a pirate pencil (£3). For the older children I also added a pirate rubber (£1.05). For the boys I put in little dinosaurs (£3.80) and for the girls I had some bright sparkly gem rings (£2.50). This meant I had to ensure that we knew which bags were for girls and which were boys! Each child also had a Candy Necklace (£2.34) and some Chocolate!! I also added a few pirate tattoos to each bag. We remembered to put a piece of cake in each party bag this year and it acted as a good way to show that the party was ‘over’; handing it over to each party guest and thanking them for attending!

DON'T FORGET: String, Bluetac, Sellotape, scissors, tea towels, bin bags, camera and charger and play mats.

WHAT WE FORGOT: Candles for the cake – luckily Jack volunteered to go and get some and we had a few smokers so a lighter was easily found! Also, Nana had to pop home for a better can opener than the one supplied, but other than that we did (I think) very well.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEXT TIME
List of timings – what needed when i.e. food preparation, deflate castle, fancy dress prizes given out.
List of things to remember during the party i.e. extra eye patches, spare fancy dress, flags for hot dogs.
Do a pre-prepared Children’s party mix.
More fruit shoots!