Skogen's Fourth Birthday - Pirates

I love that I don't have to hire a marching band, set up house-size inflatables, and buy out a party store just to throw a party for my kids.  They are so happy with so simple.  

This year for Skogen's birthday, he asked for four people to come celebrate with us:  Bumpa, Grandma, Grant, and Hailey.
So simple.

He requested a pirate theme, which was awesome because we had decorations left over from a "Pirate and Fairies" party that we had when Maida turned three!  

So simple.

Our kids hardly ever get pop or candy, so when they see me come home with a two liter and a bag of tootsie rolls, they consider it a wild party.  

So simple.

Our dining room table turned into pirate ship, paper mustaches, balloons, cardboard treasure chests,  red bandannas, pirate coloring sheets, and not only pop, but ice cream in their pop - according to the kids, this was the "BEST PARTY EV-AHHH!"  

So simple.

Skogen's 4th Bday from Kara Scharrer on Vimeo.

Here's how the "BEST PARTY EV-AHHH!!!" went down...
 We got pizzas for dinner to have with our rootbeer floats.  After eating, the kids colored pirate coloring sheets that I printed from here.  They loved coloring so much and were so proud of their work that I decided to display all the pictures under our counter.  They loved seeing their pictures hung up!  Then we played "Pin the X on the Treasure Map."  I bought a few treasure maps from Hobby Lobby in the party section and cut red X's out of construction paper.  The kids loved this game!  After the treasure map game, I had made up a scavenger hunt for the kids and hid some treasures.  They absolutely loved running around the house finding all the clues.  Good thing Maida's older friend, Hailey, was here because she was able to read all the clues for the kids.  They enjoyed their treasure boxes of eye patches, compasses, and gold coins (all purchased at Hobby Lobby).  After this we went downstairs where we played "Cannon Ball Pop."  The kids each had a black balloon (which was supposed to be a cannon ball) tied to their ankle.  They were supposed to run around and try to pop each others balloons.  The last one with their balloon still inflated won.  The game didn't exactly go as planned - the kids couldn't get the balloons to pop!  So, after several minutes of the kids running around crazy, we called it a tie.  The last game of the night was breaking a pinata.  This also didn't go as planned - the kids couldn't get the pinata to break! It went on and on and on.  Finally we had the moms take turns and when we still couldn't get it to break, Erik whacked it a good one a couple times and the kids ran for the long-anticipated candy.  We finished off the night with a few presents and cupcakes.