Share

For my son's 7th birthday I had a pirate party.

I found the cake idea in Family Fun magazine as well as some game ideas. The kids enjoyed a game called "Walk the Plank." We put a wide plank of wood over our Little Tykes swimming pool and floated plastic alligators in the water. The kids all enjoyed walking the plank. They also enjoyed the foil wrapped cardboard swords that I gave them as a prize for walking the plank. Then we had a treasure hunt with clues. This resulted in the kids finding a cache of gold candy coins that we divided evenly between all the pirates. They took their "booty" home with them in their little wooden treasure chests. I also did an internet search and found the Boardman Web site (www.boardmanweb.com). He has suggestions for more games using the pirate theme. I got free pirate hats from Long John Silver's restaurants. I also learned to shop for the theme idea a few months ahead to get the best deals. I did find some gold coins at the 99-cent store, but the quality wasn't very good. Later I discovered that See's Candies had delicious gold coins.