Nathan's 5th Birthday Party!

This morning we had Nathan's birthday party! Nathan loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates", a preschooler-friendly Disney spin-off of Peter Pan. So, we threw a Neverland Pirate Party!

We sent out Piratey invitations - messages in a bottle:

We handed out most of the invitations and mailed a few to grandparents.

Did you know you can mail anything 13 ounces or less. I mean anything.

As long as it's not breakable. So we just slapped labels on the bottles and sent them off as is!



Here's what the invitations looked like

(minus personal info that's blacked out for obvious reasons)

We just printed invites on construction paper, and burned the edges.

Nathan loved his invitations!

When the kids arrived, they all got Pirate headbands.

Because cartoon Jake doesn't wear an eyepatch, he wears a red bandana.  

I just bought a red t-shirt at Michaels and cut it into 14'' long strips,
then stitched up the ends to make loops. They worked perfectly!

 We started the party with a treasure hunt.

The kids had to work together, as a team, to complete tasks and find their treasure - just like on Jake & The Neverland Pirates.

The kids found their first clue, by the balloons!

 With each completed task, they won gold doubloons. Just like on the show. Only, our coins were chocolate inside ;)  And the team put their winnings in a team treasure chest - again, just like the show. Our oldest guest, big sister of a friend, was our treasure chest carrier. She thought the games were a little young for her 6 year old maturity... hehe  But she warmed up as the hunt went on!

First team challenge - pop all Captain Hook's cannonballs!

We started it as a relay race, but realized that little kids aren't so adept at popping balloons and if we wanted to eventually make it to lunch, we needed a faster method - so it became a free for all! 

Arrrg! 

There's our team treasure box carrier, happily watching the fun. 

 Task #2, feed Tick Tock Croc so we could pass by safely without him attacking us. 

I painted a science project board, so it would be free standing - but I failed to think about weights for the wind... ha  Thankfully Daddy is a good Croc holder ;)  And the kids had a fun taking turns tossing bean bags into the hole I cut out (there's a scrap of red fabric mounted behind to make it look like his mouth).

Even Ruth liked the Croc Game enough to get off Mommy's hip and play a little herself! 

More gold doubloons for the team treasure chest! 

Next, it was off to walk the plank!

(aka Daddy's 4 wheeler ramp)

That was easy enough! And fun! 

But then the team had to cross the Never Sea

(aka a slip 'n slide)

 It was HOT out, even at 10:30am, so it was ok to get a little wet!

The team's final task was to get rid of the shark in the garage!

Good thing it was a piñata shark, they're easier to fight ;) 

All the kids took turns banging away at it. When the rope broke, Daddy used what was handy - a bungee cord. And that was pretty cool, just hard enough for a 4-5 year old, but not impossible to hit. 

The team came close to finishing the shark off.

But it was HOT and so after everyone had at least 2 tries, Daddy did the shark in! 

And the kids gathered up their sweet loot! 

The final clue, in the shark, said their treasure was lunch!

Inside we found the X that marked the spot for some yummy piratey grub. 

Cheese sticks made to look like octopi, PB&Jellyfish,

and some "Berried treasure" of strawberries & blueberries.

We also had crab hotdogs.

(Slice the ends of a dog into quarters, but leave the middle intact and boil till the legs curl.

Then we added raisins on toothpicks for eyes.)

There was also Pixie Dusted Grapes (grapes rolled in a mix of lemon & watermelon jello mix... I know... grapes don't need more sugar. But they sure are yummy that way... hehe)

And there were blue Jello cups with wedges of oranges to look like ships with pirate flags.

And to drink, we had Never Sea Water.

(64oz white grape juice, 1 pack of blue Kool-Aid, 1 cup sugar, 8 scoops of pineapple sherbert)
Yes... the kids got some sugar highs today! But hopefully that meant they went home on sugar crashes and took good naps for their moms :)

We also had cheese ball "cannonballs" and a watermelon I attempted to carve into a shark. 

A great big THANK YOU to my mom for all she did to help finish off lunch so the kids & parents could eat when the treasure hunt ended!! She is awesome!!

 

The kids all loved their lunch. Nathan ate more than we've ever seen him eat in one meal before... 2 hot dogs, 2 cheese sticks, cheeseballs, fruit, and jello. Wow! No wonder he didn't want dinner ;)

After lunch, we got ready for Nathan to open gifts - here's the gift/cake table. 

I love how his sweet friends are all excited to see what he got.

He got a paintable soccer ball.

And a Dinosaur hotwheels set. 

And a sprinkler 

And a kids' potters wheel from Mommy & Daddy.

 This was one of those insane Kohls sales that was hard to pass up... $50 item for $9 after tax. I think he's going to really love it, and it'll be good for his coordination, and creativity, too.

Opening gifts from Granny & Pa! He got a bow & arrow set!

He already loves it and is learning to use it. I'll post those pics & a video soon.

And he got a book from Granny & Pa

And a card with a french fry card inside! 

All the kids were excited!

And a cool ball that is already everyone's favorite new toy 

And some sidewalk chalk!

And then from Gramma, he got a kids camera! We'll have lots of fun going on ABC hunts, and nature walks, and all kinds of things with that camera.

After presents, it was time for CAKE.

Nathan wanted a "Bucky" cake. That's the name of Jake's ship.

I was up the challenge of attempting my first 3D sculpted cake. Maybe my last?

Thanks to the help of our refrigerator, it turned out pretty cute and only a little lopsided :)

Here's the full cake - I made a little island for Captain Hook and Mr Smee.

There's a general tutorial over at this site - momendeavors.com.

It helped a ton to learn some tricks from her!

Here's a closer look at the island. It's graham cracker crumb sand, with pirouette cookies & candy melts made to look like palm trees. And whoppers as coconuts (you can't really see them). I was thrilled with how it turned out! So was Nathan! 

We all sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the birthday boy.

He blew out his candles, and everyone enjoyed some cake & ice cream!

We had a great birthday party for Nathan. It was fun to plan and pull off.

We are so blessed with a special kid in Nathan, it's fun to get to treat him to special memories, too!

Happy Birthday, again, big guy!