In The Hartland: Logan's Pirate Birthday Party

Although I offered to throw Logan his first, friend birthday party last year, he was adamant that he only wanted a family party. Since Lia's birthday is only twelve days after his and I always end up throwing an over the top, friend party for her (due to the amount of girls she always wants to invite), I was 100% fine with this. However, I knew the day would come when Logan would change his mind and that happened to be this year. Logan has grown up quite a bit in the past year and has really outgrown a lot of his difficult "tendencies." He now really enjoys socializing with other children his age and has regular playdates at our house. As a result, it came as no surprise to me when Logan announced that he wanted a friend birthday party with a pirate theme. So I agreed and took a deep breath as I headed into February knowing that this already busy month just got even busier.
I am happy and relieved to say that Logan's birthday party was a total success today. After trying to plan both Logan's and Lia's birthday parties during the past two weeks, I was grateful to check one of them off the list. I decided to go with a red, black, and white theme with striped accents for Logan's party and was quite pleased with how the decorations, games, and food turned out. Logan graciously allowed his two sisters to attend his birthday party and also had eleven other friends from the neighborhood, church, school, and his old preschool attend. I strongly encouraged him to invite his friends that are girls knowing that they would help to lessen the noise and chaos that a bunch of little boys can make and I am grateful that Logan agreed to this. As a result, we had five girls and six boys attend and it ended up being the perfect sized group! We started out the party with a pirate, coloring craft before playing four different games all with a pirate twist. Logan then opened up all of his presents before we finished off in the kitchen eating cupcakes and ice cream. Logan had a great time and I think that he really appreciated all of the attention and wonderful gifts that he received from his friends!

The party room all decked out in pirate colors and decor.

The treasure chest centerpiece that I decorated and placed at the center of the main table. I used a pirate chest that Logan fell in love with a few years ago while we were shopping at Michaels. Little did I know that this was the beginning of his pirate obsession.

The red and white cupcakes I made with pirate flags on top.

A close-up of the second table complete with pirate confetti and gold coins.

The banner I made and hung in front of the fireplace. Besides the red and black tissue poms, I decorated the mantle with Logan's, favorite pirate toys.

Logan dressed up in his pirate costume all ready to go before the party began.

A close-up of Logan and the sign that we put out next to our front door. It said, "Ahoy! Welcome to Logan's Parrrty!" with a pirate, skeleton saying, "No Peg Legs" and "Leave yer hook at the door!"

My adorable, six-year old pirate.

Once the guests arrived, we had everyone color a wooden, pirate mask with markers. Here is Lia posing with our next door neighbors, Daisy and Poppy.

Our master artist coloring away.

Casen, Jace, and Michael working on their masks.

Logan posing with Ella and Sophia, his good friend from his Kindergarten class.

After the kids were done coloring their masks, we started off the party games by playing pin-the-eyepatch-on-the-pirate. Ella was so cute and took every game so seriously. Here she is pinning her patch on the poster with Ron supervising.

Casen accidentally bumped right into Logan as he was trying to walk to the poster. It was so funny!

Conner getting ready to be spun three times by Ron.

After playing pin-the-eyepatch-on-the-pirate, we played a game where the kids had to "walk the plank" four different times with it increasing in difficulty each round. Here is Logan walking the plank during the second round when they had to keep their arms behind their backs.

Sophia walking the plank.

Casen walking the plank during the fourth round while blindfolded with his arms behind his back.

Although no one fell off the plank during the first three rounds, only three kids made it all the way across the plank during the final round (blindfolded with their hands behind their backs). Surprisingly, one of these kids was Ella! Here is my cute girl (who changed out of her Ariel dress and into a ballet costume during the party) walking to the end of the plank. She never ceases to amaze me!

The third game we played was "Pass the Pirate Sword" while listening to music from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and movie. Every time Ron stopped the music, the person holding the sword got to pick a piece of candy from a bucket. Here is Toby passing the sword to Ella.

Daisy passing the sword to Casen.

And Logan passing it to Michael.

We finished off the games by playing a pirate-y version of a family favorite--instead of playing "Hide the Thimble," we played "Hide the Pirate Coin." We played many rounds of this game and the kids never got tired of it! Here is Logan hiding the golden coin inside his toy, pirate ship.

The kids scouring the family room for the hidden coin.

The group searching high and low!

Logan opened up his presents after we finished playing games. Here he is opening up Jace's gift who is his good friend from our neighborhood and church.

Here is Logan showing off the awesome gift he got from Casen who was his good friend from preschool last year.

Logan showing off his Lego gift from his good friend, Sophia, who he met this year in Kindergarten.

Logan opening up Mason's gift who is another friend from church.

We finished off the party by singing "Happy Birthday" to Logan and eating cupcakes and ice cream. Here is Logan giving me a smile before we sang to him.