"Moore" Than Words...: A Pirate Parrrrrrrrrrty! ;)

This past Saturday, we had my youngest son's 5th birthday party. It's so hard to believe he's "a whole hand" old now! Wow...that's my BABY, and he's THAT old?!! According to my mother, that means it's "time for another one"....but I'm not so sure I agree with that. ;) I sure am happy with the two I already have.

For Aaron's party, he chose a pirate theme. This was so much fun! I had no idea there were so many pirate things out there...I found so much! However, with hubby not having a full-time job right now, we really tried to do everything ourselves and not overspend.

So, my sweet friend Vickie graciously cut out some adorable little pirate ships on her Cricut (I don't own any diecutting machines) and mailed them to me. I taped these to sucker sticks using black tape and made the cupcake toppers for the vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing (which I baked myself):

I also made German chocolate cupcakes with coconut pecan frosting and found these cute cupcake picks from Hobby Lobby:

Hubby and I also carved a ship out of a watermelon and filled it with melon balls and grapes. We bought a cheap bandana from Hobby Lobby, as well as a dowel rod, and made this cute sail (the foam skull and crossbones stickers were given to me by a friend who had some leftover pirate party stuff):

For Christmas, Aaron received a cardboard trunk full of dress-up costumes. I saved this trunk and changed it into a "treasure chest" by adding a few more of the foam stickers a friend gave me and filling it full of treasure!:

This was the most fun...finding all the little things to fill up the treasure chest with! Some of the things it contained included: bubbles, beaded necklaces, fake jeweled rings, sidewalk chalk, party blow-outs with skulls and crossbones on them, bubble gum, suckers, pirate coins, stickers, eye patches, and pirate finger puppets:

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were in charge of putting the fake pirate tattoos on the kids. After eating grilled hot dogs, it was time for cupcakes! Aaron LOVED his #5 sparkler candle on his cupcake. It was extremely windy and HOT on his party day, so we had a little trouble getting the candle to light, but it worked out eventually:

My dad built this adorable sail and added it to a little fishing boat he had for his pond. The kids loved playing on this "pirate ship!":

After food, it was time for the treasure hunt! My husband hand-drew the map and wrote the cutest rhyming clues for the kids. Before reaching the buried treasure, the kids had a run-in with "Barnacle Bart", the bad pirate who was trying to keep the treasure for himself! (AKA, my dad! how cute is he?!) He fought the Cap'n (Aaron), and finally he surrendered and agreed to hand over the treasure!: