D Turns Five

This June D turned the big number FIVE! He had the theme all picked out months in advance and he could hardly contain his excitement.. all the more incentive for me to step up my birthday planning.. thank you Pinterest I do not know how we ever lived or planned parties without you!

His theme of choice.. Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

The Invites: I found this super cute printable online here

The Party:
We stared with having the kids dress like a pirate.. I bought foam hats and stickers from Oriental Trading Company for the kids to decorate. Interestingly enough.. kids found it not so interesting.. many simply refused to decorate a hat.. some came back to it later and just a handful actually wore them. What was even less interesting to the kids were the eye patches I had handmade :( but the foam swords I had scored after repeated visits to the Dollar Store were a huge hit..

Next we had two ring toss games.. this was meant as an activity to kill time until everyone had arrived. D and I enjoyed making and decorating both activities together.. he really loved being a part of the party planning I cut the centers out of plastic plates to make the rings.

Once all the kids had arrived we had them walk the plank.. which we had made with some left over wood we had. The kids loved it.. it was harder than they had expected.

After they had walked the planked they found themselves ready for a game of musical islands.. the game was the same as musical chairs except with islands. once again a handful of children opted out of the game and instead wanted to play on the swing set. We had cut out cardboard ovals.. D and H decided to color some of them.

Once a winner was declared and everyone caught their breaths from all the crazy running around we directed them towards our pirate ships and cannon balls.. 

I cut the ships out of a large box and outlined it with a black marker. We used paint sticks to prop the ships up in the backyard and filled two diaper boxes with colorful balls and let the kids use their imagination.. 

We kept lunch simple.. pizza and juice boxes and a cute jello treat.. I found the sails here

The cake too we kept simple.. a plain white cake. D requested a border.. and I let D decorate the cake with his Jake and the Neverland figurines.

Our backyard is a slope.. M was afraid D would fall right into the cake if not held back!

Lastly D and I created treat bags with a few gold doubloons chocolate coins in them.. they were fun to make, it was especially fun to see D's artistic side.

Phew.. that was exhausting.. but to see the kids have fun.. to see how happy D was.. so worth it.

Interested in seeing how we celebrated D turning four.. ABC Party!

     

                  Etsy           Instagram           Twitter           Bloglovin