co party for my one year old boy and 4 year old girl while traveling to see family. I let my daughter pick the pinyata and was going to base the theme from there. At first she picked a beach ball and looking back that would have been a perfect theme for an August party for a boy and girl. But not wanting her to regret her choice (she is pretty girly), I gave her one more look through the pinyatas before ordering it. You know how this story ends. Help me. Pirate theme. This is so utterly uninspirational. Any suggestions? I rented an inflatable water slide and maybe I could sneak a predominately Polynesian island theme in there. Do you let your kids pick their theme?
Grandma G are you for reals? Your answers never cease to amaze me. "come to terms with a theme" I'm sure I can talk my 12 mo old into accepting the party theme without too much angst and without throwing two parties during our 10 day vacation since they are after all 9 days apart. Yes on the mermaids. She finally gave way some mermaid lagoon additions. So I will run two themes together, mermaids and pirates. I think it will all work out well, though the beach theme would have been easier and cheaper. I saw plenty of pink pirate stuff, but my daughter hates pink so had to steer clear of all of that. I personally hate sculls and cross bones, but I think I've worked out the kinks and it should be cute. Honestly, I think she is just thinking of her boy cousins and wants to impress them. She is all about fairys, and butterflies, princesses and animals. She has never had interest in pirates so I'm just a little surprised that this is the direction things have taken. But pirates it is!
You can also take it in a Peter Pan direction if she decides at some point she regrets the pirate theme. It's actually a pretty workable theme, if you have to get stuck with one.
Never had theme parties. This seems to be something fairly new. Parties of the 70s and 80s were at home. Some games, balloons, cake ice cream. That was it. Kids always had a blast. So I can't help. I would just do pirate decorations etc. why do you have to make it girly. She wants pirates let her have pirates.
Pirate theme is fun and easy-
eye patches, bandanas, swords and pirate hats for the kiddie guests to play with/ take home.
they can do beading and make pirate treasure necklaces.
a jolly roger flag.
you can set up a kiddie pool and have a paper boat race.
food can include pirate punch
pirate pizza
pirate booty
walk the plank hotwings
have a backyard treasure hunt.
do a pirate ship battle with water balloons.
It's a great time.
best,
F. B.
You could do a "walk the plank" game- big board over a kiddie pool.
Buy or make pirate hats/bandanas.
Red and black streamers with Jolly Roger emblems thrown in randomly.
Chocolate gold coins in goodie bags if you do them.
Dig for buried treasure in a sandbox, or follow a pirate map to a hidden one if you don't have anywhere to dig. (Have to be a very simple map...)
Otherwise... 4 year olds don't really care much about following themes. I bet everyone would be happy if you just set up a kiddie pool and a sprinkler, let them bust open the piñata, eat cake and ice cream, and just freely play with their friends.
Or you could consult Pinterest.
It sounds fun! All the suggestions below sound great. I don't have anything to add; I just want to say there's no law that you have to do a theme. Let the theme be that it's your daughter's birthday. If she winds up having a pirate/ballerina/astronaut/fun-at-the-beach party, then that's wonderful. It'll be a celebration of who SHE is, not just based on the offerings at a party store.
In answer to your question, I've always let my son pick his birthday theme, but I have a veeeeery themey (some might say obsessive) kid. If he had a wider range of interests at any one time I'd probably forget the theme and just make it a fun party. My mom always threw wonderful at-home parties for my brother and me. They never had even the slightest hint of a theme, and we're none the worse for wear.
Sorry, all I can see is Cap'n Jack on the beach with Rum!
Ala, Pirates of the Caribbean!
Oh this is such an awesome theme! When my daughter turned five we had a pirates and mermaids party. I decorated the cake with store bought Disney characters from Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid. We had a piñata and did a treasure hunt in the yard (like an egg hunt, but with candy and plastic jewels and coins.) We had paper pirate hats and cheap plastic crowns. I had a station where the kids could make either a sword or wand out of newspaper (hard to seriously hurt anyone with a newspaper sword but they are surprisingly durable!) They also decorated treasure boxes. We had some kind of blue "sea" punch and a few snacks. Really, really fun, cute, easy and cheap, one of our better parties for sure.
this girl who's blog I follow had some cute ideas for a girl/boy party, with pirates and mermaids. You can find it here: http://thespohrsaremultiplying.com/fiesta-friday/twin-par...
For my sons pirate party, we had several girls so I bought some pink pirate tattoos and pink pirate hats for the girls along with the normal boy pirate stuff.
Pirate Luau. How about that?
If they show an interest in picking the theme, I do try to abide by their wishes! A pirate theme can be lots of fun for kids- think Jake and the Nether land Pirates on Disney Jr! Some pirate bandanas, some fake swords (i saw some at the dollar store yesterday) would be great and I think an island theme would add to the party. Also bubbles! Have fun!
A pirate theme is fun. You can take this and run with it. The kids can wear cutoff white pants (cut them off kind of jagged on the ends), maybe find a skull-and-crossbones scarf to tie around the waist as a sash, and a simple tank top on top. Of course, they'll need a buccaneer style hat to top off the look. Arrrr! Teach them pirate talk, and if your daughter has pierced ears, she can wear a single gold hoop in one ear.
As for decorations, here's your one-stop shop: http://www.chasing-fireflies.com/treasure-pirate-party/pa...
We did a pirate party. Get some striped material and make bandanas for the kids. We did pin the treasure on the map. (We made the map out of a brown paper grocery bag we cut it, got it wet and crunched it up so it looked old. The kids decorated their own treasure chest with markers glue and glitter. We got those at hobby lobby. We did peg legs and planks (chicken tenders and French fries) the kids played stomp the cannon ball. We tied very loosely a balloon around each kids ankle. They had to pop each other's balloons. Last kids with a balloon one.
A pirate theme is so cute and easy.
-Bandanas for their heads if they want. (You can even get pink ones for
the girls.).
-A treasure map w/hidden treasure in your backyard. Make it very simple
& elementary.
-Fake foam swords for every to play (swashbuckling).
-Pirate booty for snacks
-Pirate hats (Dollar Store)
-Put little scrolls in plastic bottles for them to take home w/a pirate themed
poem
-hide a treasure chest (buy one at the thrift store....an old jewelry box that
looks like a treasure chest. Put gold coins in there, jewels (rings, necklaces, rubber duckies for the babies, Matchbox cars for little boys etc).
-Color scheme can be red, black & white (maybe a touch of hot pink for
the girls)
-eye patches for everyone to wear at the party.
-hooks for everyone to wear (buy at local party store or make your own
w/a cup & foil rolled & wrapped into a hook)
-take donut holes, put a stick in them then cut out a "sail" from construction paper. They are edible mini boats.
-you can have little black vests for the kids to wear
-have a cooler of punch w/a sign "Pirate's Punch"
Sounds like fun! If you are looking for a treasure chest at all I just found one at Michaels a couple of days ago and used a coupon on it so it was $10. Nice quality. They also had a princess one. My three yesr old really wanted the pirate ine when he saw it and picked the princess one for a friend that just celebrated birthday. I went back thenext day and git the treasure chest one for him when he wasn't with me. Will use it for a reward at some point with a scavenger hunt to find the treasure. sounds like you have it all under Control now. Have a great time.
My son did a pirate theme last year. Search Pinterest for kid pirate themes. That is where I got most of my ideas. I think you can do a pirate theme for a girl without doing pink. Take a look at Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Very kid oriented pirate ideas that you could incorporate without the characters.
I have a 1 year but also have a 6 year old little brother who we let pick themes we made the table look like a boat in your case you can play with colors and make it like a boy & girl pirate ship!! :)) hope it helps!!
Not for this age. They'd probably pick something horrible. I would let the girl have her own party though. There's no way a boy of 1 and a girl of 4 can come to terms on a theme.
Hi Jane,
Hobby Lobby has boy and girl themed pirate party goods...
There are really cute ideas online. We cut our watermelon in a shape of a piate boat, had a little treasure hunt in the sand of the park, and themed the goodie bags with the lollipop rings in decorated wood treasure chests from a craft store. Also had pinata and the pin the treasure on the map game. Girls and boys lived it. Fake pirate necklace jewerly for gals etc. have fun.
