Still Partying Like Pirates

Remember Max's birthday last year? Remember that comment at the end where I mentioned that I was ready to retire from the life of a pirate? Well here we are a year later, and First Mate McGraw is still firmly entrenched in the world of pirates, thanks to my dear Captain Max Salty! I gave him all kinds of ideas for birthday party celebrations, but there would be no swaying him: we would again be celebrating in true pirate fashion. The invitations went out, the goodies were bought, the house was decorated and our pirate partying commenced once again!

Having as much practice as I do, the party was pretty easy to put together. For snacks we offered lime-flavored chips, skulls (pretzel crisps) with hummus, hard-tack X's (made from Pillsbury breadstick dough), cannonballs (of the malted milk variety), Pirate's Booty (a brand of puffed popcorn, courtesy of Angela and Lachlan), and chocolate gold coins.

Upon arrival, everyone was asked to choose a pirate name by drawing a word from each one of three bags and putting them together in order. The first bag contained mostly adjectives, the second contained pirate-y articles of clothing or body parts, and the third contained "common" pirate first names. This translated into such names as Blind Eye Deb, Calico Tooth Bruce and Limp Patch Sal! Captain Max Salty, of course, was not required to draw a name, seeing as he's had his for over a year and a half now. He responds to "Salty" just as readily as "Max"!

Then it was time for the treasure hunt! This year, there were even more kids who were old enough to participate in the games, and it was such a riot watching them. Ellie and Max led the charge, followed by Addy, Lachlan and Louie... with Will bringing up the rear. The hunt led them around our main floor, asking them to complete certain activities at different points along the way. They had to hop like bunnies through a doorway, spin in a circle three times, sing "Twinkle, Twinkle", give someone a hug, and jump up and yell "Happy Birthday!" all before they were able to find the treasure chest filled with goodies.

When given the choice between cake and another game, the kids chose to play another game! Can you believe it? So we played "Musical Islands"- identical in every way to Musical Chairs, except that the chairs are replaced by islands (pillows) and the person who gets out has to walk the plank! I don't think anyone minded getting out when that was the "punishment".

Waiting for the music to stop...

Louie walks the plank

Captain Salty swords himself off the plank

Addy jumps off the plank, assisted by Salty's cutlass

After a round of Musical Islands, we brought out the cake. I must say, I'm much happier with my decorating job this year than last, and it helped that I decided against trying to frost any words on the cake... just a plain old Jolly Roger. I did have a near nervous breakdown when I went to frost the cake (which was still a little soft) with chocolate frosting (which was still a little hard). The cake began to come off in chunks, and the frosting would not frost! I called Paul in a panic, and as usual he calmly told me how to deal with it. I heated up the frosting for a few seconds and it spread like a dream. Crisis averted.

We sang "Happy Birthday", and all the kids leaned in to blow out the candles together. Then, without warning, Max took his plastic cutlass and chopped the cake in half! I couldn't have planned that pirate moment. We served the cake with root beer floats, and I unapologetically sent the kids home nicely sugar-buzzed!

We had a swashbuckling good time, and I hope all of our guests did too. Here's looking to next year on the Pirate Ship Scallywagg with Captain Max Salty and crew!