evan's pirate themed birthday party!

 

This year I decided to have Evan's birthday party a week later than normal because I waited until the last minute to decide on the theme. Having it on June 4th would have been an obvious day to have it outside being that it's almost summer and the sun is almost always shining.

Welp, not this year. Nope.

Instead, it rained. No. It poured. It was cold and humid and icky. But we made the best of it. My hubby said that it was probably God's way of saying, "It's okay that you weren't able to purchase the back yard play structure for the kiddos to play on because you wouldn't have been able to use it anyway!" So I guess it was okay then....I guess. haha!

Anywho, the party was still going to go on, so we just simply moved everything inside. I had already planned on setting up the dessert table in the dining room so that was no problem but I had to come up with a plan for the food and such in the kitchen. I decided on making BBQ pulled pork sammies in the slow cooker and so I used two cookers so that we'd have enough meat to go around. To go with the sammies, I made some BBQ baked beans in a third cooker as well as some fruit kabobs that my sister put together and a salad with some yummy ranch dressing purchased at The Cheesecake Factory. They have the best ranch! I was only able to get a shot of the meat so I was a bit bummed about that. Everything looked so good!



For the dessert table, I put together some yummies that I gained inspiration from from different websites. The first thing I made were the chocolate covered Oreos. These were SO easy to make and really fun! I found a tutorial at Gourmet Cookie Bouquets.com.  These where the first to go from the table! I got a lot of compliments on them!



Next I finally decided to make some homemade marshmallows! I purchased a candy thermometer last December in hopes of making some for Christmas but hadn't ever gotten around to it. I decided to add a little bit of butter flavoring/extract to give them a little different taste. I really really liked it. I also decided to use a pirate stencil I purchased for face painting on the tops of some but after just these few, I decided I didn't want to go through the hassle of doing them all. It was really messy with the coca powder!



Then I made some chocolate covered pretzel rods which are incredibly easy to make. I make them for lots of occasions and they always go over well. This picture came out so fuzzy so sorry about that.

 

And lastly, I found this completely adorable pirate pop tutorial at The Celebration Shoppe. I thought these were so cute! I didn't have an egg shaped cookie cutter so I just used my regular round one. I think they turned out just as cute!

In addition to all the yummy treats, I decided to go ahead and make some cupcakes to go along with the cake. I wanted to make sure that everyone had something that they wanted in case the cake I made wasn't their taste.

I found these fun pirate cupcake liners and toppers at Michaels and they matched perfectly!



Then, remember this post? I was very excited to try my hand at making a cake with fondant and I think the cake I ended up with for the party turned out pretty cool! It doesn't look super perfect but not too bad for my first time doing the decorations and stuff. Everyone at the party seemed to like it and the marshmallow fondant tastes pretty good too!

 

When I started to think about favors, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I did know that I didn't want to spend a ton of money so when I found this other pirate party online, I knew I could do this! I already had everything I needed to make the bags at home and that was awesome! See those cute and fun favor bags? Isn't that such a fun and inexpensive idea? I loved it!

Here's the ones I made:

And then after I started writing this post, I realized that I didn't get a photo of one of the funnest parts of the party, the pirate table! Duh! I made up this cute little sign and put it on a frame that said, "All pirates need, a sword, an eye patch, a pirate had and some jewels. I had everything set up on the table for our guests to pick up and wear during the party. I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture! Here's some cute photos of some of the kiddos sportin' their pirate gear!



And then since it was raining I needed to figure out what the kiddos could do to make up for having to be inside. Then I thought of an art project. I headed over to Michaels and purchased some fun pirate themed foam art projects, that were on sale I might add (yay!), along with some fun pirate coloring items. My MIL let us borrow a nice sized fold out table to do the projects on and I set it up in the dining room right next to the dessert table. I think it was a hit!



After craft time it was time for cake! I just love the looks Evan gives when he's being sung to! He gets all embarrassed and bashful! So cute!



Make a wish!







One thing I did want to do that I wasn't too successful at was getting pictures of all the families before they left. Sometimes things just don't go as you want them! Oh well! Here are the pictures that I was able to get!


This is my brother's friend Omid with his wife Stacey and their son Ryan.


My friend from years ago when we worked together, Melissa and her son George.


Uncle Mark and Auntie Kathleen. Evan calls her "Afween!"

And my sister was able to get a picture of the three of us before the party started. Can you tell I got a little carried away with the streamers? haha!

 

So that was Evan's pirate birthday party! I had a lot of fun putting it together but boy oh boy was I tired! My feet and back were aching so badly! All worth it though! I just loved how everything turned out and it seemed like everyone had a good time. 

 

Sunshine or rain, the party must go on!