My handsome birthday twins decided they wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake. A sword cake they said. They had no idea I was going to go a little further this year with our theme. In what was a complete departure from the norm, I invited our wonderful friends over to share in the day. I threw a little pirate birthday party. I didn’t even call it a party, but we had a piñata and we had cupcakes. I think that qualifies.
Step 1: Shopping for supplies.
I started out a few weeks ahead of time finding little toys for our pinata at Oriental Trading Company. I bought spy scopes, stickers, and gold coins. I spent about $15. I found a cool Pirate Ship piñata at Party City and spent another $15 plus $10 for candy. I could not find any pirate themed wrapping paper and neither did they have solid red or solid blue so it was sheer luck that I kept looking until I found the cool red and white striped “sail” wrapping paper. I also picked up Jake and the Neverland Pirate plates, napkins, cups, and ribbons.
Step 2: Preparation.
My nine-year-old daughter figured out how to use tea and dirt and a pale blue marker to make an old looking treasure map for the inside of our house. She had so much fun, and ended up making a treasure chest too! She spent an entire week making things for our party. The night before the big day I made chocolate cupcakes with yummy chocolate icing and topped them with two gold doubloons each. I filled the piñata with the toys and then the candy. We visited Disney Jr. and found cool pirate hats to print and make plus a whole bunch of Jake and the Neverland Pirate coloring pages. I invited our friends. We were ready to go! The day of the party we let the twins color the coloring pages while we wrapped presents. We filled the treasure chest with fancy clothes from our costume bucket and sprinkled gold doubloons on top. It was hidden according to the treasure map.
Step 3: The Party.
We started out using a cool toy sword to break the piñata – youngest to oldest, and no blindfold. After we made sure everyone had one of each toy and some candy in their zip bags, we passed out cupcakes and played on the playground behind our house for an hour or so. Very casual, very fun!
Step 4: The Family Celebration.
Of course, I had to make a pirate sword cake for our family celebration so I made a white cake with white icing and designed the sword on top using a coloring page from Disney Jr. I finished that off with a few gold doubloons. Directions for the Pirate Sword Cake are coming! We got out the hats and had our treasure hunt. We opened our fancy wrapped presents. We played and played and played with our new treasures. The perfect end to a birthday party day.
[…] We have always loved celebrating birthdays for an entire week. We call it “Birthday Week” (creative…I know.) We have actually been celebrating all week long since before we even had children. When we were first married I would decorate and make favorite meals for the week of my husband’s birthday. Then, I’d do the same for my birthday because he wasn’t much of a decorator lol. Here are my top four ways to make birthday week super fun for your loved ones, even if you don’t have a birthday party. […]