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I have been researching themes for Ezra’s 6th birthday party and I decided I should share some of the things I have done for his past birthday parties.  Last year for his 5th birthday party he wanted a Pirate party.  We tried to do everything as cost effectively as possible.  I purchases much of the decor items on Oriental trading company to save  a little money. 

Decorations:  We purchased a bunch of small pirate flags that we hung throughout the living room and backyard.  We took out much of the furniture in the living room to make way for one banquet table.  I placed a cardboard box on top of the table to add a little height and then covered it with a black table cloth.  I then took some of the river rock from our backyard and spray painted it gold and stacked it on the table for the center peice.  Among the “gold” I scattered a few hundred mardi gras necklaces, gold pirate coins, plastic jewels and gold compasses.  I added some black candle holders and some skulls from our halloween decor.  I also hung fish net and put sea shells all over as well.    I took some old plates that I had and spray painted them gold as well.  I had purchased some plain brown treasure chests and adhesive jewels for the kids to decorate.  I put all of the jewels on the gold plates at each end of the table.  On the cake table I put down some large leaves as placemats and again pulled out a few  halloween decorations to place along with some more seashells.  I also framed a 5″x7″ picture of Ezra in his Jack Sparrow costume from Halloween and placed it next to the cake.  In the yard we scattered the pirate flags around and had black balloons with skull and crossbones on them.  We also put out a banquet table in the yard for people to sit at and enjoy thier cake.  From our pergola I hung some more fishnet full of all kinds of sea creatures.

Costumes:  Each child was told to come with their swimsuit as we have an inflatable water slide for them to play on.  So actual costumes were not a good idea.  I bought red bandanas for each child to wear on thier head and black eye patchs.  I found both at our local craft store and it was super inexpensive. 

Cake:  This cake was a bit challenging and did not turn out as well as I had wanted but Ezra still talks about how beautiful his pirate ship cake was.  To make the cake I baked two large (24 inch) round cakes.  I cut each in half once cooled.  Then I cut the round bottoms off to make them flat and stood them up on end.  I “glued” them all together with frosting and then cut an area out for the ships “deck”.  I covered the entire cake with chocolate frosting.  For the railing I used chocolate covered preztels. Cannons were made out of pirouette cookies that were painted with black food coloring.  Cannonballs were whoppers that were placed in stacks of three on the deck.  I printed sails on the computer with skull and crossbones and Happy Birthday Ezra on parchment style paper and secured them to dowels and stuck in cake.  I used a couple of Ezra’s pirate guys as I did not want to attempt to make a man out of fondant.  I used twirly candles and stuck them out of the side of the cake so it looked like cannons on fire.  I used decorator icing to make swirling ship designs on the ship.  All the kids thought the cake was the coolest and it actually tasted really good too.  I cannot take credit for that; I used a cake mix. I am good but not that good when there is so much to do. 

The kids played on the waterslide for quite awhile and then they decorated treasure chests that they then got to fill up with all kinds of pirates booty.  This was perfect because they could come inside and take a break from the sun when they wanted to.  It worked out wonderfully. 

Since the party was mid afternoon, I did not have to serve a meal.  However, I did put out a fruit tray for the kids and water and lemonade to drink.  I used plain black paper plates which were super inexpensive, and pirate napkins. 

Ezra loved his Pirate party and as far as I could tell so did the other kids.  It was super fun for me to put together as well.  Now all I have to worry about is how to top it this year which is what I am trying to figure out now.  Kids parties are so much fun to plan.   I can’t wait to see what theme he pics this year.  He is talking about a wizards party but has not yet decided.