Yo Ho, Yo Ho...A Pirate Turns 3!

Today is our little one's 3rd birthday.  Last night we celebrated with a pirate bash for the Captain.  Everyone came in their pirate or princess best and enjoyed lots of pirate games.  We walked the plank, dug for treasure, and we even had a pirate tattoo parlor.  We had a wonderful time and I am very thankful for all of our friends who came to help us celebrate.  I will apologize in advance for so many pictures, but please be sure to scroll down to see the cake!

This is what greeted our guest as they arrived to the party.

I decorated our courtyard in red and black.  You might recognize this concept from last year's Halloween decorations.  I changed the colors from orange and black to red and black and viola!  You have a pirate party!  To see the Halloween version, please click here!

I do apologize for some of my pictures.  I was running out of time and did not have the food on the table.  I had every intention of having it perfect for the blog, but what can you do?!  The Peg Leg were chicken wings, and the Cannonballs were sausage balls.  I got the recipe for the sausage ball here and they were delicious!!!

I asked my neighbor's daughter and her friend to help me out with the party.  They were in charge of the tattoo parlor and games in general.  They were a HUGE help!  Thanks Girls!!

The big kids and little kids had a great time with the beanbag toss game!

They also had a great time digging for buried treasure.  The children search for pirate Silly Bandz, gold coins, diamond rings, beads, and pirate earrings.  I purchased these items from Amazon, Century Novelty and Oriental Trading.

Here are a couple of pirates walking the plank!

My dear friend, Lorraine, made his pirate outfit for this occasion!  Isn't he cute?!  Below are some more cuties who wore their pirate or princess best!

The true star of the show, besides the birthday boy, was this awesome cake.  My beautiful and obviously talented friend, Bonne, made it for us.  The pictures do not do this cake justice.  I wanted to cry while I was cutting it because it was just too pretty.  Let me tell you one thing though.  As good as the cake looks, it tasted even better!  Yes, I know you probably think that isn't possible, but it is.  The cake was amazing!!  The top two tiers were a moist, chocolate cake, and the bottom tier was a white almond cake. 

Bonne has a blog dedicated to her cake creations.  Please check out Fondantopia to see her work!  If you live in the Atlanta area, you should contact her for your next celebration.  Be sure to tell her I sent you!

You can see that the little ones could not wait to get a slice of the pirate cake.  Everyone wanted the pirate ship!

I reused some of my Halloween and Mardi Gras decorations to the kids table.  The candelabras were purchased for Halloween a few years ago, and I put a few Mardi Gras beads and doubloons on the table for the children to wear.

I wish I had pictures of the courtyard at night!  It was beautiful when the sun went down.  I had so much fun putting the party together.  I will be completely honest and tell you that I did not do everything I had intended.  If I had more time, each child would have had a treasure map to follow to each activity.  We would have stamped their map after they completed each activity and they would have been given a prize.  I had also planned to do an art project with them, but they were having so much fun playing that I decided not to do it.  However, I feel like I must share this with you so you will know that I am not perfect.  The important thing is that our little one had a great birthday with his friends, and I had a wonderful time hanging out with mine!  It was a wonderful day!

If you have not found Pinterest.com by now you need to check it out.  I created a board just for this party.  It was a huge help in giving me ideas and keeping me organized.  Click here to see my board!

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Southern Nest

PS-  I am linking this party to the following sites: