Pirate Party Planning

Pardon my absence but I've been busy the last couple of days. For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile now, you already know that I am a crazy party planner! I love birthday parties and am excited to now have an excuse to throw two next year... (although Daddy has different ideas about that). He thinks that since our children will have birthdays so close together, that we should have just one big party for the two. I say, OK, but that means I'm going all out! And in case you were wondering, yes, I do already have ideas of how to do just that!

Normally I do a mural on one our basement walls to go with the theme of our party, but wasn't able to finish this year's painting due to pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm really disappointed because it's something I love to do and Jaxon was helping this year. I plan to finish after "Baby" comes and the CTS disappears, but I'm going to be busy w/ a few other projects so it may be awhile before it ever gets done!

This year's theme is Captain Jaxon's Pirate Party. I have been wanting to do a pirate theme for some time now. There are tons of party supplies out there for this theme and it seems to continue to trend well in the party supply world. Here's the thing about this theme that really bothers me though... it's just not cute enough! Most of the supplies I have found have been kind of scary and I am not into "scary pirates" at all... I like my pirates cute & cuddly! Kent thinks I have lost my mind! "Cute & cuddly pirates? Only you could create a cute and cuddly pirate!" - Kent

I am fully aware that some day my children are going to come to me and say, "Mom, could we go a little less cute and do a little more cool?!", but until then, this Mom is doing as much cute as I can! And while all of the supplies are run by Jaxon first, I do admit that I am very strategic about picking and designing the supplies before they are run by him, making sure to not include anything that isn't cute enough!

Here are few of the things I've been working on! Everything pictured came from Hobby Lobby... I simply added the personalized touches to each product. The image at the top of my post is a serving bowl, it came as a set of two. I plan to use one as a "party favor" dish and the other will serve as a food bowl.

The banner pictured above was exactly what I was looking for but I did make a few changes to it by personalizing one of the tiles. The favor bags were given personalized touches by adding the names of each of Jaxon's party guests.

The formula cans are something I use every year... I simply wrap them in scrapbook paper and personalize them to fit with the theme. And finally, the little, wooden pirate hat on a stick is a fun "add-in" that I place in each of the formula cans along with a few balloons to make centerpieces for each table. These I have also been able to find each year at Hobby Lobby (I love that place)... they cost about 67 cents a piece. I hot glue them to kabob skewers and stick them into the weights for my balloons so they stand up straight.

I have a few more last minute things to finish up and I will be done with this year's party planning. It's bittersweet every year when we get to this stage, but even more so now that I will no longer be planning for just one child, but two!