My daughter and son have birthdays in February, so we are having a joint 'princess and pirate' party for them. Daughter will be 5 and son will be 3. Guests will include kids around those ages and younger as well as their parents. I found some cute printables on etsy and have googled a ton. Wondering if anyone has some great ideas for games, foods, favors, crafts, etc? I'm planning on making/sewing some things to dress up in and we're for sure doing a treasure/jewel hunt! We don't have a huge party every year, so this year I want to go all out!! Thanks!
**My kids love Jake and the Neverland Pirates! We are doing Princesses for the girls (not Princess Pirates) and Pirates for the boys, so it's a combination of the two :)
Go to birthdaypartyideas.com You can look up parties by theme and get a ton of ideas from other moms who have posted there. I never plan a birthday party without it.
My daughter had a princesss party last year and a Neverland party this year (Neverland so it could include ALL things Neverland...Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Jake, Hook, everything and not exclude the girls or the boys but it was mostly pirate things). If you would like to see some of the pics for ideas, PM you email address and I will send you some.
For the princess party we used plastic wine glasses/goblets and had the kids decorate them w/ self-adhesive jewels. The girls made wands and the boys made shields. They all got jewel colored crowns. All of these were party favors. We had pink lemondade (Princess Punch) and finger foods (picked by my daughter...small pigs in a blanket and cookies) and of course we had cake and icecream. We hade pink and two shades of purple as the color scheme.
For the Neverland party we had Pirate Punch, fish & chips, cannon balls, and swords. We had cupcakes w/ pixy dust and a pineapple cake decorated w/ Jake etc. The accent color we used was red. Their take home bags were brown lunch bags w/ Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and Skully sticker on them and tied w/ brown string. Inside was a treasure map, gold candies, compass, and skull ring. We had coloring sheets and mazes, we made spy scopes out of papertowl rolls that they decorated, and they did X marks the spot on a treasure map. Kids were told they could dress up as their favorite Neverland character IF they wanted. Some did, some didn't but they all had a blast. I also decorated w/ a treasure chest.
This just made me think of "Jake & the Neverland Pirates" on Disney Junior. There is at least one Pirate Princess episode too. Sounds really cute. What about decorate your own sword/wand? With some pretzel rods, melted cholcolate and sprinkles (with parental help). Put the jewels in a treasure chest all the kids will be happy regardless of being a pirate or princess.
we did a pirate party for my son when he was 7 or 8. it was a blast.
we did the following
make a big pin the treasure on the map (pin the tail on the donkey type game)
I opened a big paper grocery bag along the seam so it was opened up big. crumple it up good and burn along the edges to make it look old. take a wet washclothe and scrub it up some that makes it look washed out. then just make a treasure map. give the kids some big x's to try to mark the spot (you can get super fancy and try to make treasure chests but that was a little more than I could do lol.
we got brown paper bags with rope handles and let the kids all decorate them with markers, stick on jewels and crayons and glitter. do this first so they have time to dry. it allows time for all the kids to get there. we used them later to take home the pirate booty.
we did stomp the cannon ball. we used big fat balloons which we tied to the kids ankles as both balloons got popped they were out.
treasure hunt/scavenger hunt. we didn't get to do this as it poured rain but the neighbors were all set for it.
each kid got a bandana that I made for them. they had black material at walmart with glow in the dark skull and crossbones and then also some red and white striped. i let the kids pick which they want.
foods we did chicken nuggets (peg legs)
red and green grapes and carrot sticks and chips.
had a running cd going of music from disneys pirates of the carribean at disney world. kids loved it.
forgot the booty lol. get some chocolate coins they are wrapped in gold foil. kids love them.
My sister did this too and she always has a cupcake decoration station for all her celbrations this time with "pirate" colors (black/gold/dark blue) and "princess colors" (pink, white, purple) to use - with sprinkles,eddible glitter, candies, frosting etc. Plus she found at jo anns or michaels little treasure boxes out of wood for the kids to decorate and got for cheap marti gras beads and those chocolate coins to put inside all gold and white (pearls for princesses) as their pirate booty! She made sashes for the boys to wear on their waist or on their heads and tiaras for the princesses. My sister is crafy so you can probably buy a lot of simmilar things at oriental trading or something like that. She had the cake made in thirds, chocolate, marble, vanilla - the decorator did a pirate ship on the choc side, princess castle on the vanilla and the words in the middle over the marble. She used a bakery that takes your own pictures and puts them on the cake and she brought in pictures of each and printed out on word the lettering she wanted so the "Pirate's" name and the "Princess'" names were in the appropriate fonts. It worked out well, and she used a neighborhood baker not a walmart or grocery store - she said it cost maybe 10 more than it would have been had she ordered a half/half at a walmart for the cake to be in thirds and the guests liked all the options. She also had a "pirates punch" and a "princess punch" - she found edible glitter for the princess' punch nice touch and had a floating ship she ordered in the pirates punch. Now, my sister is that mom where everyone wants to go to her parties then fuss about how she goes overboard and how annoying she is and other words (she knows this and enjoys it -don't know why) so those of you thinking the same it's ok I just wish she lived here so she could plan my next party!
I love the ideas you were already given but add a few:
treasure chest filled w/sand to dig for fake gold coins
fake swords to hand out
pirate hats
crowns & wands for the girls
jewels for the girls
food: maybe add mini pigs in a blanket
gold foil covered chocolate coins
Pirate punch
decorate living room like the inside of a ship
Love the dress up items.
crafts: have the kids draw their own treasure maps
the girls can decorate their own crowns & wands w/jewels
Sounds like a fun party. Enjoy! :)
Dollar Tree has tons of Pirate decorations, hats, plates, cups, favors, etc. And I think they have Princess stuff too but can't swear to it...but I got some of the pirate stuff for my son's party so I know for sure that is there. good luck!!!
I've let the kids decorate their own princess crowns and pirate hats with stickers, markers, glitter, when they arrive. I printed out princess crown shapes and pirate hat shapes from free websites onto card stock, then used poster board to make headbands that you attach them to. The kids love them! so cheap. I tried to play a game at mine called, "Princess, Princess, Pirate!" like duck duck goose.
