Matthew's Pirate Birthday

Matthew wanted to have a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday this year.  If you aren't familiar with Jake, he is the star of a Disney cartoon show that is a spin-off of Peter Pan.  The timing of Matthew's birthday (end of Feb.) was tricky this year since we didn't know when Scott would be home and we were planning on taking some vacations once he did get home.  Although Matthew's birthday is in a week and a half still we decided to have the party today.  We figured Scott would have either gotten back last Friday or yesterday and we would either be leaving on vacation tomorrow or next weekend....sooooo, given all the variables, this was our day.  Also we decided to have it at Chuck E. Cheese again since I didn't want to have to worry about keeping the house clean while welcoming Scott home (and all his gear), fending for myself the weeks leading up and packing for a vacation.  

 

The week of the parties ended up being BUSY.  Scott got home last Friday, Tuesday was the scout Blue and Gold Dinner which I was in charge of, Thursday was Anna's preschool Valentine Party which I was in charge of and Saturday was Matthew's Jake Birthday party...and tomorrow we leave for vacation.  Busy.  Here are some pictures (blurry) of our Jake adventure.

Here is Matthew with animatronic Chuck E. Cheese.  I don't think you are supposed to stand up there.

 

 Some of his party friends in the play structure.

Smiley pirate Anna.  I copied a lot of the ideas for this party from my sister-in-law Angie.  She did a Jake party this past year and also gave the kids headscarves and eyepatches.  I did that too and gave them a little metal pail to keep their pirate gold dubloons in (Chuck E. Cheese tokens).

 We had 17 kids at this party!

While they ate I had them guess how many gold dubloons were in a jar we brought.

The winner won an inflatable sword.  The older kids did better at that one.  :)

Getting ready for cake.  The cake was made lovingly by the Target bakery.

It was cute (Jake themed) and I don't know why I didn't get a better picture.

The cake was completely demolished by our hungry crew.

 Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!

 Chuck E. Cheese made the obligatory appearance

 And just before blowing out candles.

 Matthew in the ticket blaster.  He looks terrified but he had fun.

We played "Don't Catch the Cannonball" which was just hot potato with a black cannonball looking ball.  I used a timer that ticks (like the Tick Tock Croc) to buzz and ring when someone was out.  The kids liked that game and each kid who got out got to walk the plank.  Walking the plank, which was just a painted piece of cardboard, was very popular.  Here is Grant holding up the plank line.  Grant loved it too and did a big jump off the plank into the pretend ocean.  ;)

The walk the plank idea was also copied from Angie, but hers was a lot better.  ;)

And how can you have a pirate party without a treasure map or hunt of some kind.   Doing it at Chuck E. Cheese was a little tricky.  Here is our treasure map...then I cut it up into five pieces and gave the kids the first piece of the map (which led to the 2nd piece etc).  Scott stayed one step ahead of us hiding the clue moments before we all arrived to find it.  That way no other Chuck E. Cheese patrons would find the clue and steal our treasure....ARRRR!!

Scott made this impromptu treasure chest from a toy box in about two minutes.  Very impressive!

I painted a cardboard X to mark the spot.

At the end of the treasure hunt the kids found our treasure chest (marked by the X) and all the goodie bags inside (this was at the end of the party).  The kids had a ball doing the treasure hunt...I didn't get good pictures though.

 So we all had fun.  Grant liked playing the Chuck E. Cheese games (as did Anna).

One of the party dads held John almost the whole time.

And my childhood friend, Bridget who also lives in Colorado Springs, came with her kids (her son is two days older than Matthew and they live about a mile away from us!)  Good times!

 Me and my pirate headscarf.  ARRRR!!!

 And Grant with the X and treasure box after our busy party was over.  Phew!  Thank you Angie for all the cool ideas... I checked her blog post about her Jake party about 5 million times.  I'm glad it was fun and I'm glad it's over now!