Pirate Party!

Jules here-


Big news: I finished my dining room project.  3 weeks of peeling wall paper, puttying, painting, re-puttying- and RE-painting... it is done.  Now three more rooms to paint (of course, I am NOT peeling wallpaper, simply painting OVER it.)

Easter Pic!

In other news, we celebrated TWO birthdays in the past 2 weeks: Grace & Lissie!  With all of the changes, moves, and unpacking, Grace craved her favorite activity: party planning.  For weeks (months actually), she has made lists, scoured pinterest with me, and made homemade decorations for her party.  Lissie chose a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" theme- and it was so much fun having a less-girly party.

Decorations:
We made a black, white, and red paper chain, a pirate flag banner, and a pirate ship for the wall.

Each child was issued a pirate outfit: a bandana, tattoo, and an eye patch.

Plus balloons and streamers (which I had leftovers from prior parties)

Total cost: $7

Food:
The girls had some specific requests for the meal, so we tried to make it "fit" our theme.  We served shell macaroni and cheese (we named it "Golden seashells with sand").  We made octopus hotdogs again for the kids.  For the grownups, I made a salad (one of my favorite recipes) and meatball sandwiches (cannonball subs).  Grace even labeled each juice box "Pirate Punch" and added Jake and the Neverland Pirate stickers.

Please note the beautiful yellow walls in the background...

Total Cost: $30 (I splurged on the pre-made meatballs to save time)

Prizes/Games
We played pin-the-flag-on-the-pirate ship, walk the plank on a 2x4, and a treasure hunt.  We went to Target and the Dollar Store to get prices and gift bags for each child.

Pirate crew eating food.

Treasure Chest!

Pin the flag game.

 Total Cost: $10

Finally-- I made the cake.... Using two loaf pans and quite a bit of confectioner sugar- they turned out pretty well. I raided most stores after St. Patrick's Day for the gold coins.  I also used sixlet candies for the "pearls" of the necklace:

Cake cost: $5.00 including all the candy. 

So I overspent a bit, I'll chalk it up to rising grocery prices and my inability to resist some perfect pirate themed items.  I tried to keep things under $40, so I was pretty close.   The weather was perfect today so the children spent most of the time riding bikes, eating outside, and just enjoying the sunshine!

 Easy Rule #5324-When your child is gracious and appreciative of your efforts- spending time on frivolous things can be worth it.

Easy Rule #34234- After you spend 3 weeks on one room renovation, take a break.