As promised in last weeks post, today is all about the remaining details of my son’s VeggieTales Pirate Party.  I had so much fun putting this party together.  A lot of effort was made to have as many of the party details match scenes from ‘The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything’ movie – needless to say, I lost count of the number of times I watched the movie and my son still comes out with an ‘Arrrgh’ at the most random of times.  But that is all just part of the fun.

Party Highlights:

• The theming of the food was definitely a highlight for me, in particular the little fish and chips boat dishes.
• I thought I would have a go at making the birthday cake as well as all the modelled chocolate figurines.  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out even though there were moments of great frustration.  Let’s just say I have a new found appreciation for those who do this for a living.
• The recycled pallet furniture and the barrels did a really good job of setting the party scene.
• The way I managed to dress the soft toy, Larry, to look like his character, Elliot, from the movie.
• Lastly, I loved the little treasure chest favour boxes.

Party Décor:

The furniture played a big part in setting the party scene.  With help from my husband, we used some old shipping pallets to make bench seats for the children to sit on, and for the ‘lemonade stand’ style food table.  We also hired some barrels from First Scene prop hire.  These came in handy for displaying the favours, as well as adding to the décor.  At either end of the children’s table we constructed two ship masts and then hung bunting from one to the other.  The bunting was from the As You Wish Events ‘Simply Nautical’ printables collection.  From this collection also came the ‘Happy Birthday’ banner, bottle wraps, cupcake wrappers and toppers, toothpick flags, buffet labels and the fish and chips boat dishes.  The overall look was finished off with a tea stained tablecloth, hessian runner and a few themed props for the centrepiece.

Party Favours:

To help set the atmosphere, as each guest arrived they were given a spotted bandanna to wear, just like Elliot’s. I had managed to find the perfect fabric for this at Geoff’s Emporium in Dominion Rd.  In addition to this each guest received their own little treasure chest, which I had found on Trade Me.  Each one held a small bag of gold chocolate coins, a Veggie Pirates bookmark and a Veggie Pirates sticker.  The bookmarks and stickers were among the free printables on the Veggie Pirate website.

Party Entertainment:

For this party we decided to keep the entertainment rather simple.  We set up a colouring-in station with pictures download from the Veggie Pirates website.  We also had a barrel of fish which could be caught by a magnetic fishing line.  Lastly we finished off the party by watching the ‘Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything’ movie.

The Party Food:

As mentioned earlier, we worked really hard to make all the food connect to some part of the movie. As a result this is what we had on the menu:

• Fish Bites and Chips with tomato sauce served in the boat dishes
• Evil Cheese Curls – aka ETA Cruncheese Corn Snacks
• Fudge Cupcakes with themed cupcake toppers
• Rocks of Malabar Sundaes – aka Vanilla Ice cream, coloured with blue food colouring and rocks made from modelling chocolate.
• Cannonball Munchkins – these were from Dunkin Donuts
• Pirate Pea Cakepops

Summing Up:

Because the weather wasn’t great we had to squeeze all the guests into our smallish house – but I wouldn’t have changed this as I think there is something special about entertaining guests at home, and no one seemed to mind.  There were enough places to sit, plenty of food for everyone and the hush that came over the children as they ate, said to me “Job well done!”

Vendor Credits:

• ‘Simply Nautical’ Party Printables: As You Wish Events Ltd
• Veggie Pirate Printables: ‘VeggieTales: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything’ Website
• Décor & Styling: As You Wish Events Ltd
• Catering: As You Wish Events Ltd
• Photography: Adam Ferris