Pink Pirate Party

Last September, my "baby" girl turned five.  She originally wanted to have a princess birthday party, but I really, really, really wasn't feeling it.  After talking it up quite a bit, I convinced her that a Pink Pirate Party was the way to go.  I'm so glad that we did too.  It was a lot of fun!

 

Claire's invitations reflected the pink pirate theme.  I made the invitations (with purchased graphics) and had them printed on photo paper.  Originally I was planning to print on cardstock so I could add a pirate map to the back, but I didn't get them made in time, so I opted for photos, which I could pick up from my local pro-lab. 

We had a total of 15 little girls at the party.  At this age, it's really a toss up whether parents will stay or not and luckily we had quite a few moms (and a few dads too) who did stay to help supervise the bunch.

Here's the dining room set up for the party.  Justin hung black burlap on the wall and I adorned it with a pirate bunting and a poster for Captain Claire. The table has jewels, Hersey's (gold) nuggets, wine glasses, and gold coins.

As the girls were arriving, they were able to make some crafts.  I purchased some foam door hangers and frames that they could decorate with pirate themed foam stickers.  These all came from Michael's.

 After most of the guest arrived, lunch was served!  Unfortunately, I was so busy that I didn't get any pictures of the finished buffet, but you can see some of the set up in the photo above.  I purchased several pink and black bowls and buckets from the Target Dollar spot.  Those were perfect for serving dips, carrots, chips, and trail mixes.  Pink and black paper plates and napkins came from Party City.  Of course, we had to have food fit for pink pirates!  I made octo-dogs, golden treasure (chicken) nuggets, walk the plank crackers (Club Crackers), to name a few. I also served a fruit tray and pizza. I almost forgot...what's a pirate party without some Pirate's Booty!

The buffet was decorated in a hot pink table cloth.  This is a real table cloth that I actually use for craft fairs.  I purchased two of these large circular cloths a few years ago from a Navy Exchange sidewalk sale.  They were $2 each and I have to say they were well worth it!  You can also see in the photo that we have the pirate pinata and some framed photos of The Pink Pearl's adorable crew.

Elise, my teenager, and her friend Jennifer were an invaluable help.  They put together a treasure hunt for the girls after they finished their lunch.  It started out with one scroll with a clue to the next scroll.  The scroll hunt took them all around the house and yard and finally ended at the dining room table where they could enjoy their prize, which was a cupcake!  This was so much fun for the girls and it was cute listening to them try to figure out the clues.


I am some what of a cupcake snob.  I often make modified (box) cupcakes, but I HATE canned frosting.  I made these delicious chocolate cupcakes from scratch and they were decorated with hot pink peppermint frosting and embellished with pirate cupcake toppers.  I used the food coloring gel to get the frosting that bright fuchsia.

 

Instead of pink the tail on the donkey, we did pin the treasure on the "X."  This would have went better if I hadn't forgotten the blindfold!  Oh well...live and learn right?

This map was used for our pin the treasure game.  I think it was printed to 16x20 inches.  It was nice and large.

 After the treasure game, we hung and busted the pinata.  I have to say that I really wish that it was one of the ribbon pull-string pinatas.  The girls went through the pinata busting line more than two times before the pinata would bust.  I tihnk finally Justin had to "help" it out a bit because that sucker wasn't going to break!

 Of course, what pirate girl's party is complete without her birthday shirt?  Claire wanted a pink pirate ship tee with the name of her ship, The Pink Pearl, on it.  I love the way it turned out and so did she!

I created all of the invitations, pirate map, cupcake toppers, food labels (not shown), posters, and framed pirate photos.  If you are interested in purchasing any of those,  please email me directly at mary @ Bananabearboutique . com (without the spaces) and I can help you out.  The invitations are $15 for you to print your own or $1.85 each for me to print on cardstock (minimum of 30) or $1.25 to print on photo cards. 


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The Twirly Skirt

On a recent shopping trip to a local quilt shop, my five year old fell in love with an owl/bird print fabric.  If you know me, you know I love owls too, but I just wasn't feeling the fabric.  It seemed too busy and it was on a white background.  But Claire begged me and begged me to buy it and make her a skirt from it so I relented.  

Looking through my skirt patterns, I couldn't find anything that wanted.  So I decided to make up my own.  Thus the owl twirly skirt was born.  Here's what I came up with:

Claire loved the skirt instantly especially the ric rac trim around the top layer of the skirt.  She was so excited to wear it to school the next day.  While she was in bed, I made her an owl tee to coordinate.  This adorable owl is from Applique Cafe.  I've had the design for quite a long time, but this was the first time that I've ever used it. I love the way it came out!
 

Lucky for me , Miss Claire wasn't too excited about her owl shirt.  She had other plans in mind, which included wearing a purple and red penguin shirt that completely didn't match.  I finally convinced her to put it on and wear it to school.  As you can tell, she wasn't too happy about it and let me know her day would be ruined.  Gee...do you think I have a drama queen on my hands?  

The good news is that within minutes of being at school, she had several compliments on her outfit, so the day was saved!

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