Yarrrrr! It be a pirate party!!

Ahoy there, me hearties! I mean, hello my lovely readers. I'm afraid my brain is still stuck in pirate mode. Yesterday we had Indy's 8th birthday and it were a piratin' we be was an awesome pirate bash. Indy started planning this the day before last years party.  He knew he wanted pirates and after the huge success of the Indiana Jones party, I knew expectation were high and I'd better do it right.  No pressure.  It rained for almost a week leading up to the party and I was freaking out slightly worried, but the day before the big party, the rain stopped and the sun started shining.  Whew!  I had a lot of prep work to do, but the super-duper awesome Hoosier Mom (seriously, loving you HM) did me a big solid-yo) by baking the cake for me. She baked and stacked it and covered it with fondant and the night before the party, we went to her house and ate Chinese, played a game called Yuker (which I still don't understand, but had enough beginners luck that JAG and I didn't do too bad-we played HM and James Bond), drank a lot of wine and stayed way too late considering we had a party the next day.  Oh, and we worked on the cake.  Silly me!  That's why we went over there.  James Bond drew the map on the cakes and I painted them on with food coloring.  It didn't take that long, and I think the results are awesome.  I owe HM big time.

The day of the party dawned clear and sunny and James Bond and I got to work.  We had games to set up, a party room to decorate, food to cook and a shark to carve.  Oh, that's right, James Bond was at it again with the watermelon carving.  Remember the watermelon brains for the Indiana Jones party?  Yeah, well, this year I saw a watermelon shark online and HAD to have it.  Had. To. Have. It.  I knew James Bond could do it.  It took him about an hour.

The kids started arriving and excitement was in the air.  We broke the kids up into 2 crews, headed by first mate, Indy and second mate, Mona Lisa.  The teams competed against each other for a bag of chocolate dabloons to be divided among the crew.  The losing team also got a piece of pirate chocolate each, but man they wanted those dabloons.  They also earned pirate gear with each game.  The first was "boarding."  They learned that while some pirates swung from one ship to another when attacking, others used planks to get across.  They had to cross a plank blind folded from one platform to another and not fall in or be eaten by sharks.  I stood in the middle of the blue tarp, proving that I really can do anything, including walking on water.  In heels.  ;)  They all received pirate bandannas and waist scarves for this feat.

 Me helping one of our little pirates

The second game was called "Swab the Deck."  They had to push a ping pong ball with a broom from the start to finish line and then hand the broom off to the next teammate.  This was hard, but loads of fun.  For this they earned a pirate earring.
The third game was the noisiest and by far everyone's favorite.  Well, maybe not the neighbors, but whatevs.  We tied a balloon to everyone's ankles (2 balloons per pirate) and the object was to pop the others while not getting your balloons popped.  Once both balloons were popped, they were out and had to go sit on the sidelines and cheer on their teammates.  The last person standing with a balloon won for their team.  This game went on far longer than I expected, but everyone loved it (again, except for the neighbors-12 children + balloons tied to them does not = quiet).  After this they received tattoos, eye patches and the most coveted of all: swords!  Hurrah!
While the kids battled each other on the playground for a few minutes, James Bond, the Contessa and I went to get the food.  Our menu consisted of the following:

Octopus (hot dogs cut and boiled)
Seaweed (green pasta with butter, Parmesan cheese and parsley)
Star fish and Hardtack (cheese and crackers)
Shrimp
Jellied Sharks Blood and Guts (red Jell-O with Swedish fish mixed in)
Fruit (to avoid scurvy)
Seaweed Dip and Crispy Shark Fins (spinach dip and blue corn chips)
Dried fish (Goldfish crackers)
Grog (Apple Juice and Sprite mixed together with punch ice cubes for sharks blood)

The kids loved the names of the food and took great joy in eating the "Octopus" and toasting each other with their pirate goblets.

Indy cleaned up in the presents department (mostly from mom and dad and the grand parents) and got loads of pet food donation to take to the local tierheim in memory of Miss Pepper.  You can click the box below to see some great photos.  BTW, James Bond lived up to his secret agent status by somehow avoiding being in a single photo. 

If you click the box below you'll see a lot more photos.

Scrapbook made with Smilebox

I'd like to note that it didn't take me almost a year to post these.  I'm getting better!  I personally don't think it was quite as cool as the IJ party, but Indy still loved it and that's what counts.  He's already got next year's party theme: Star Wars!  May the Force be with me.

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