Yes! A swaggering or flamboyant adventurer. Rough, noisy, boastful swordsmen. So that's what a Swashbuckler is! Pretty much sums up Max and Otto. With or without a Pirate Party. But why not play the part with a few props...
Earlier in the summer were talking about some pirate things we could do. Dress up, make ships, go on a treasure hunt, etc. This took off and turned into the idea to have a little Pirate Party. Since the boys birthdays are in January and February, and less conducive to outdoorsy pirate activities, I thought it would be a great summer play date to have.
I'll let the pictures do much of the story-telling. We had a lot of fun. The kids loved it! It very likely will become an annual summer party we host. With an adult treasure hunt as well (yo ho ho and a bottle of rum)!
- Playing in one of the pirate ships. You have no idea how hard it is to locate big boxes at appliance stores, Costco, etc. Last week I had a new hire join my team from UW-Madison. As we were talking about our weekend plans I mentioned the pirate party and commented out loud how I still needed to find a box to turn into a ship. She said she had two I could take off her hands. Bonus points for her. Who cares if she knows how to market Hamburger Helper (off topic, but I've rotated off Green Giant and onto Helpers - so long healthful motivation) so long as she can help make my kiddie party plans come to life!
- My two nieces, Grace and Lyla, were excited to be the oldest kids at the party. Initially I hadn't invited them because I thought they wouldn't like hanging out with the littler kids. But, they seemed to enjoy themselves and were great additions to have, particularly when reading the maps on the treasure hunt.
- Wren in her Swashbuckler outfit. A little pirate tutu and bandana I made. LOVE the earring (from some dollar spot pirate items at Target) with all her hair. She looks just like how I envision a gypsy would look. Maybe for a future Halloween costume.
- Max in his pirate costume
- Our neighbor Avery in her super sparkly pirate princess costume. She picked everything out herself and looked fantastic. Avery is Max's age and I am 100% sure that Wren is going to idolize her and want to hang out with her as she gets bigger.
- A couple more neighbors ready to set out for the treasure hunt
- My niece Grace. Best costume ever. Seriously looks like she just walked off a (glamorous) pirate ship!
- We live just a couple blocks from "the forrest" (some woods next to a park, school, playground, etc) where the boys love play. I made a map of the forrest, including the trails and some natural land marks. Then I found a spot and buried a gold (painted box) treasure chest and marked the spot with an "X"
- Setting out to find the treasure
- X marks the spot
- Digging for the treasure
- Finding gold and jewels
- Otto, although not interested in dressing the pirate part, loved the chocolate coins and necklaces
- Heading back to our house after finding the loot
- Then they played in the ships and walked the plank
- A pool full of pirates
- As always, a huge thanks to my resident engineer, builder, muscle man, props guy, etc. Any time i mention a party he knows that my ideas are going to be plentiful, but my skills for implementing not so much. Without Joe our pirate ships wouldn't have had masts and sails and there would have been no plank to walk.
The confetti cannons? Those were his idea. To which I said hell to the yeah we need to have confetti cannons. What's a pirate ship without a cannon?! And so we had confetti cannons. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures or video of the cannons shooting the confetti. I did however catch this video after Joe suggested using the cannons to blow bubbles in the pool. Hmmm...wherever do the boys get their swashbuckling from???
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