Imke turned 4! Our pink pirate shindig!

After months and months of hard work and late nights, Imke's pink pirate 4th birthday party was a super success!

I can't wait to share all the details of our girly's party - she had so much fun, all the little pirates looked adorable and I loved every moment of working on it.

SO, on to the process.. Last year sometime, Imke mentioned that for her 4th birthday she would love to have a pink pirate party. And my creative gears started turning away! I immediately ran to Pinterest to see if anyone else has done a pink pirate party. Lo and behold there were hundreds of images for inspiration.

I printed out a few of my pins, to stick up in my office so I can see them daily - then I started designing.

First off was the invitation - it needed to be pink and girly, but with a very pirate-y feel. (I downloaded the font called "Arr Matey" and used this extensively throughout all the designs). This is what I came up with:

Next, I took myself off to the fabric shop - my favourite place at the moment ;-) I bought meters and meters of pink, black and white polka dot and striped poly-cotton, some hideous (my sewing machine hated this fabric so much!) polyester black stretchy fabric as well as some inexpensive pink lace (pictured in this post). I went to the fabric shop so often for this party that they now greet me by name when I walk in lol!

With the fabric I made black & white striped pants for the boys, pink & white s& black stripey skirts with lace trim for the girls, ship sails for the centerpieces, tablecloths and sails for our fabulous boat (more about the boat a bit later!). I also made waistcoats for the littlies - with buttons for the boys, and with corset effect for the girls. Even the granddads, uncles and Imke's daddy got waistcoats.

Here is the birthday girl in her pirate get-up! I made the hats from felt and just had an idea in my head about how I want them to look, and they turned out just perfect. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the skulls out of calico, and then I just used spray adhesive to attach them. For the 'pirate shop' where all the kiddos got their outfits as they arrived, I used the dress-up station I built for Imke's playroom. Loot bags I made from calico, and Imke helped me stencil the skulls on them.

Here are some little awesome pirates guests in their outfits:

A friend brought me a huge bag full of empty kitchen paper rolls, and we got stuck in painting them black. Then I begged my fabulous sister to come help me finish the telescopes with gold paper, stick on 'jewels' and bakers twine. Each pirate got a full outfit, a sword or a hook, a telescope, a hat, an eye patch and a loot-bag. Inside the loot-bag I added a little treasure hunt list and a pencil, so the kids could tick off all the things they found for their loot.

I made a rugged, coffee stained sign at the entrance to welcome all the little guests, and give some information as to where they need to find their outfits etc. I can't always be right there to welcome everyone, unfortunately :-(

Half way through the planning of this party, I started thinking about having a boat for the kids to play in. I ran it past my dearest dad, and he said no problem! And voila, he built us a boat - I love that I can have these mad ideas, and my family just falls in to help and make and do!

Here is the boat, complete with sails (which didn't last too well against the onslaught of little hands lol!). Dad made a porthole low to the ground for them to crawl through, and we added a walkway plank (which J didn't get time to varnish; but he did varnish the whole rest of the boat - my husband rocks!). It also has 'cannons', where pirates can throw cannonballs through - and I forgot to put the balls in the boat for the party... Can't always remember everything!

We placed the boat on a truckload of river sand, and I hid a gazillion necklaces, bracelets, crowns and other 'treasures' in the sand, and provided loads of shovels for the kids to dig with.

For Imke's party last year, my dad (yes, again me and mad idea and dad just builds it!) made me a 3m long wooden table with legs that can be adjusted for either normal table height or kiddie table height. I puffy herat this table. We again used scaffolding planks as the benches and my sister kindly wrapped them in hessian (burlap) so no one gets splinters.

I made little sails, hot glued them to dowels, and stuck them in plant pots which I covered in black fabric & tulle a the centerpieces for the kiddie table. I got pink & black paper plates, and then folded paper boats from craft paper, which served as place cards and we also served fishfingers and chips in them for lunch. My sister again came to the rescue to add the teeny tiny washi-tape flags on the bakers twine as sails. They looked super cute, but the wind on the day did not co-operate and most of them flew off the table, so we never got a nice shot of the table all set up pretty :-(

    

 For activities, we had a craft table, where the kids could paint and decorate cardboard boats I made (this blog was my inspiration for the boats). I also built a ring toss, with pirate hooks and made rings from rope. There was also a 'walk the plank' activity for the wee pirates. Then I got some temporary tattoo paper, and printed loads of little tattoos and made a "Pirate tattoo shop" - the kids loved this, and my sister-in-law agreed to be the tattoo applier :-)

The lady that has made Imke's previous cakes could unfortunately not bake for us this year. Have you seen the cakes she's made in the past for us? I have to just quickly add them in here!

First birthday - Very Hungry Caterpillar

Second birthday - In the Night Garden

Third birthday - A Fairy Party

BUT, a dear friend of mine came to the rescue, and she baked us a masterpiece!! I was so happy with this cake - thank you Liezel <3

Isn't it just awesome?!!

I wanted to attempt royal icing biscuits, like the pretty one you see all over the blogosphere. I have never made these before and I am afraid to say I failed miserably lol! They were edible, and the kids loved them, but my icing had air holes all over. But I tried, that's all I can do, and next time I'll know better ;-)

And then I wanted to make pirate chocolates - this was the crappiest, most time-consuming job of the whole party! I found the perfect pirate mould, but I was too stingy to buy 2, so it took forever to make the 30 chocs I wanted. I gave up at 27 lol! They were delicious though.

I baked cupcakes, and stuck in the cute cupcake toppers I designed. Loved those toppers. We wrapped rope and ribbons around everything (some of which look a bit droopy in the pics; will have to secure them better next time!), and stuck pretty labels in our theme colours on.

We did a candy buffet again this year - it works so much better than a pre-packed party pack. The kids get to choose their own favourite sweeties, and they take home as much as their moms allow them to ;-)

I did the backdrop with leftover fabric, and did Imke's name in hot pink! I filled a treasure chest with jewels and treasure and loads of gold coin chocolates.

I LOVED working on this party!! I had loads of fun, lots of frustrations and bucket loads of help from my fab family!

Thank you to Jeroen for varnishing the boat, cutting out teensy little labels, and keeping Imke occupied so I could sew. Thank you Vicky for helping so much with everything - those details make the party extra pretty, and you did such a fabulous job <3 Thank you mom for sewing 14 meters of bunting for me, and thank you to both you and mother-in-law for getting all the food made and ready! Thank you daddy for building a boat, for bringing the sand, for helping me build all the things I could never make on my own.

Imke said she had the best time ever - that is all I want to hear after the party, then I know it was a success :-D

Finally, here are some images of the little pirates having a ball at the party (all images by Sam's Photography):

And of Imke, Jeroen & me: