If you have been around my little guy in the last two months then you probably know he “was three years old, but now (he) is four years old!” His birthday this year was A BIG DEAL! He was super excited and counted down the days. With such eager cuteness, we had to celebrate right! So we let him pick what kind of party he wanted and he chose to have a Pirate themed birthday party.
There were a few options we could go with for when and where, but after realizing the sheer ridiculousness of how much people think they can charge for kids birthday parties, we decided on having it at the Shark Reef Aquarium {located in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino}, which we found to be very reasonable comparatively. And where better to set sail with your best matey’s than the shark infested aquarium?!
I designed this special pirate birthday invitation just for my little guy. If it is perfect for yours too then scroll down to the bottom for a free download for this invitation!
The really great thing about having the party at the aquarium was that all of the entertainment and activities were provided! All of the kids had a blast working their way through the tunnels of sea creatures and discovering new and even more fun rooms at the aquarium. When we got to our party room the staff even had age appropriate activities planned for the kids. I really can’t recommend The Shark Reef enough! The party was seamless!
Since I didn’t have to worry about activities and I wasn’t able to do much decor in their party room because of all the live animals and aquariums, I knew I wanted to do a few extra special touches for the kids! First… A birthday shirt! Every birthday boy needs to tell the world it is his special day right?! I used my Silhouette Cameo and flocked white heat transfer to create this shirt in minutes… literally! I did it in about 20 minutes the morning of the party! Watch for a detailed post on doing heat transfer with your Silhouette on Monday!
Since you can’t see it, the back of the shirt had a large jersey style number 4 on it. He was pretty proud of that number 4!
I wanted all the kids to really get in the pirate spirit though… not just the birthday boy! I am pretty thrifty though, so after tossing around about 100 ideas and spending a great deal of time on Amazon, I decided I wanted each kid to have their own kit to transform them into a pirate! This was my form of the goodie bag for our pirate party, but instead of handing them out at the end, we gave each kid their own customized pirate backpack at the beginning. Each bag was stuffed with all the gear that they would need to transform into the pirate of their wildest dreams! The best part is that after all was said and done, I got the bags made for about $2 each {plus goodies!}
My tutorial on Monday will go into great detail on how to actually make the bags, so today, we will just talk about the supplies you need to put together a super affordable pirate goodie bag. The bag themselves were a little over a dollar each when bought by the dozen on Amazon. I used my Silhouette Cameo and heat transfer to create the design and customize the bag. It is regularly $14.99 but I was able to catch a great sale {again… hint hint for Monday!!!} and got it for just around $10, which made the bags about $2 each when all was said and done. {Prices will fluctuate, so as I quote prices it is only representative of when I bought the item}
I was surprised how easily I was able to load up the bags with pirate gear inexpensively! You can see some of the goodies modeled by my little lovelies above, but there was quite a bit more in the bags. I got everything at Dollar Tree and Amazon. Here is what I packed them full of:
- Pirate Hat
- Pirate Sword
- Mustache
- Pirate Tattoos
- Gold Deblumes
- A Pirate kit from the Dollar Tree that included: a Hook for their hand, eye patch, compass, and skull and cross bones necklace. {Not available online}
I was very happy with everything! My only warning is that the mustaches are super cheap, but pay close attention {I didn’t!} they take a month to ship! If they hadn’t arrived a few days early, they would have missed the party.
It was crazy. It was fun. I think it was a day we will all remember for a long time. Micah’s pirate birthday party was a huge success and we had so much fun celebrating the craziness with all of our friends! Make sure you download your FREE Pirate Birthday Invitation below!
Free 5×7 Blank Pirate Birthday Invitation
Fonts used: Ornatique and KG Skinny Latte
Jessi says
Wow- those drawstring bags are a great deal! What a cute party favor.
Holly says
Total Adorbs but you forgot to give a shout out to your blogger pals who helped. J/K. Holly 🙂
Kimber says
Ahhhhhhh you are totally right. I somehow forget to thank the awesome people who helped me when I am typing this up sleep deprived in the middle of the night. Sorry! You really are the best 🙂
Jenny says
I love the skull and crossbones art. Where did you find that?
Kimber says
I actually just used a free image I found in a google search and then traced it in the Silhouette Studio software. There are lots of similar images available in the Silhouette store though! Here are a couple for only $1 that are very close:
http://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/?page=view-shape&id=33464
http://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/?page=view-shape&id=32762