Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Pirate's Birthday

~The inspiration~
The kids have been having fun playing this game during their free computer time. OK, ok... Mom and Dad have too!

The product!
Where there is a sea, there must be pirates!
We found this vinyl ship's deck perfectly suited to our needs. It required no adhesive at all. Static cling kept it stuck to the walls of the dining area for the whole day!
And it is completely reusable!
Table decorations came from the dress up box and the Target Dollar Spot which just happened to have these foam pirate hats 2 for a dollar a few weeks ago.

Every pirate ship needs a parrot! This guy usually stays locked away in a closet because he is so
blasted annoyingspecial. Today he was let out of his cage.
Bring me one noggin of rum now won't ya matey!Actually, ginger ale chilled with Hawaiian punch ice cubes that we told the birthday boy were rubies in his pirate's ale!
The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
Cannon Bomb:
We took pieces of cardboard and taped them together to make dingies. Brown wrapping paper and a sharpie marker were the only decorations until the girls got a hold of one and turned it into the HMS Floracita. Two bags of practice golf balls were our cannon balls. Different colors are not necessary. It was all I could find.
Here is how we played the game: Put one person in each dingy with the balls. Set the timer for thirty seconds. Each person has to try to throw their cannonballs into the other ship. Any that fall outside the ship are in the water and are off limits. You are allowed to pick up any that land inside of your ship and return fire. When the timer beeps, count the number of cannon balls in each dingy. The one with the most is sunk and the other person wins the game.
Oh... and the pirate hats must stay on. It added a slapstick element that was just hilarious!
We also played our own version of Pirate Poppers with the dart board and balloons. I can't tell you how much fun my kids had popping balloons on a dart board. We just might save the rest of the them for a boring day in July!

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that this was the cake that almost wasn't. My original idea was to pipe frosting planks all over it. I got about 3/4 of the way done when the cake started to split right down the middle. Thank goodness we had extra hands in the kitchen because I grabbed it on the ends while everyone else started shoving in bamboo skewers. I took a spatula and started scraping off all of my beautiful planks and just left a very thin layer of chocolate on the outside. I think the weight of the frosting combined with the weight of the cake (I used pound cake so that it would be firm enough to stand up) is what wrecked the ship. I was able to pipe some extra frosting inside the crack, push it back together, secure it with proper bamboo skewers that didn't poke out the front end and pop it in the fridge to let the frosting firm up. That, along with some wedge shaped blocks covered in Cling Wrap at either end did the trick. They were hidden under the frosting waves. A ship wrecked cake wouldn't have been a compete disaster, but I was glad it worked out in the end.
Cannons ablaze!!!

Abandon ship! Anyone in the area who wants some cake, come on over. I've got half a pirate ship in my fridge. Boy, that was fun to say! Although, you might have to do some dishes or laundry to get a slice!

16 comments:

  1. Wow -awesome cake! Sounds like a very fun and creative party!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OK, I love all the ideas but the coolest thing I noticed was the "cannons blazing" -- I'd never thought of putting candles in sideways! My military-loving younger boys will love this idea! Can you see a tank cake with the candle sticking out or a Civil War scene with cannons blazing ....

    MARVELOUS Matilda will be your new name, ok?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like a great party. That sure is an awesome cake!

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow! I bow to your superior party planning prowess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh man -- YOU are the birthday master! How does it feel to be so cool?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You are so talented - now here's something that would appeal to my little men, and dh!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Matilda, two words: YOU ROCK!!! I cannot believe what fantastic parties your kids had! My children and I are just in awe. We LOVE them! Now, can I hire you when it's time to plan THEIR parties in the fall? :)

    Great job! Happy birthday to your lucky kiddos!

    Dylan says:
    I like the pirate birthday! My favorite part of the pirate birthday is the cake.

    Caitlyn says:
    I like the fairy birthday! My favorite part is the bubble blow.

    :) ;)

    P.S. Dylan insisted we add the winkie and smilies. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Matilda, that is the coolest cake EVER! Wow. Hmmm.....now, how do I get a baby boy in this house?!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Holy mackerel! What an amazing cake! My little "mateys" would love it...I hesitate to show it, lest there be mutiny!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I want you to do my next birthday. I'm totally serious. It's not 'til October so you'd have plenty of time to plan it...

    Okay, Matilda? Please please please?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I tried to make that cake a few week's ago! (Or a version of it)... It's hard!!! Great job!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. WHAT A CAKE! It really was artfully done - those waves are my favorite part.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I wanted to say thank you. Your ideas are just great!
    We did the dragon cake for our son''s 4th birthday (boy was it heavy with frosting but yummy!) A Friend of mine made a castle cake for our daughter who turned 13. What fantastic ideas!

    ReplyDelete
  14. That is an amazing cake. I have to show it to my boys but am afraid they may ask me to make one. The whole party sounds very fun.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Matilda,

    I didn't have a chance to leave a comment on this post while we were out of town, and since I just pulled up the post to show my hubby I thought I would leave one.

    You did such an AMAZING JOB!!!! We were all just oohing and aahing over all of the birthday cakes you have made!

    We too especially loved the candles coming out of the side of the cake. SO COOL!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!