Sooo, Cooper’s 8th birthday party was a huge hit and a LOT of work!  I made the kids my helpers and we worked on little projects for about a month beforehand.  All the details were so cute, so I’m going to divide this up into a few posts because there are so many pictures to share!

We painted a pirate flag out of a $2 piece of black fabric and hung it where our flag normally goes.  Then we taped a red X on the front door.

The favor bags were handed out first instead of at the end of the party.  We wanted the guests to be able to dress up like pirates, so each bag had an eye patch, an earring, a pirate compass, a party blower and a few pieces of treasure (Hershey gold nugget bars).  The kids helped me assemble these and I printed off ‘pirate booty’ stickers.

We had 20 children at the party, so I was looking for deals.  Walmart was a GREAT source for inexpensive pirate themed favors.

The beverages were also purchased at Walmart.  I wanted to do all glass bottles, so I bought all the old school favorites, like Orange Crush, Cream Soda and Old Fashioned Rootbeer.  They were just about as much as canned drinks.  I wrapped water bottles in velum and it worked perfectly…even after being soaked in the ice.

The paper straws were from Garnish and I made little flags to glue on plain red bendy straws.  The appetizers were honey wheat pretzels (which I stored in little glass jars) with peanut butter dip along with veggies and ranch.  I made up the peanut butter dip at the last minute.  In my kitchen aid mixer, I whipped equal parts PB and cream cheese, then thinned it with some plain yogurt and added honey and cinnamon to taste.  I piped it into little paper cups for dipping.  The veggies were cut into matchsticks, then balanced in a paper cup filled with ranch dressing.  The paper cups can either be purchased at Garnish or Smart and Final.

I bought striped fabric from Ikea to cover our patio tables and used the scraps to make pirate bandanas for the kids!  The main table of food incorporated one of my wood photo backgrounds and paper flag pendants (which the kids helped me make).

For the adults, I made two different kinds of sandwiches.  About a week before, I made several batches of focaccia bread the size of a baking sheet.  The day of I had family help me assemble all the sandwiches, then we cut them into small portions and wrap them with parchment and secure with a flagged sandwich pick.

The turkey club had turkey, bacon, avacado, lettuce and tomato.  The other had fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil.  I also had family help me make the Kraft mac’n'cheese, which we portioned into take-out boxes from Garnish.  They were wrapped in velum and tied up with twine and a disposable bamboo spoon from Garnish.

I also had a basket of Pirate’s Booty chips and small popcorn boxes embellished with ribbon and handmade stickers filled with a big bag of Doritos from Costco.

The food labels and stickers were created by making a stamp out of pictures of silverware (in photoshop) then using a rustic looking font.  I wrapped shoe boxes and cans with paper to hold the plates, napkins and straws.

I wanted the pineapple skewers to be displayed upright instead of on a platter, so I looked around and found a big piece of wood that Jake had from woodworking.  His final test was to nail different types of nails into the wood, so we pulled them all out, sanded it down and placed the skewers in the little holes!

For dessert I made rice krispy treats in 1×3″ squares on a stick dipped in chocolate.  I also made mini chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I got the pirate flags (along with the plates and napkins) on clearance at a party store.

We had a station with pirate swords and pirate hats to decorate (from Oriental Trading Company). You can also see the buckets of water balloon canons for later.  The photo booth (complete with mustaches) was SO much fun…can’t wait to share those pictures!

Oh and here’s the invitation I designed…

Next up will be all the fun we had at the party!!

-Kristin