Pirate Birthday Party!

My son Oliver is turning 3 soon and we are planning a pirate birthday party in our backyard.  He has been into pirates ever since we took him to Disneyland last spring and he rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  Although he has never seen the movie, he knows all the characters and a pirate themed party was what he wanted!  I bought Disney's Ultimate Swashbuckler Collection from iTunes for some pirate background music to play outside while everyone is swimming and party-ing it up.  I was planning on making my sister's pirate hat cake you can see here. 
Also, here are a few things I made for his party:

A treasure map invitation

The invitation reads: 

Avast Ye Scallywags!
Hoist yer anchors and set sail to celebrate
Captain Oliver's third birthday.
Chart yer course for (our address)
on the twenty fourth of July at two o'clock or walk the plank!
Come dressed to swim unless ye are a Landlubber!
Arrrrrr... ye coming to the party?  (our phone number)

I drew the map and compass and found a scripty font for the words.
I printed the invitations on parchment paper and cut rough edges with scissors to look like it was torn.

Pirate Flag

What pirate party would be complete without a pirate flag!  I lucked out and found half a yard of black felt in the clearance bin at our local fabric store for $2!  I then got some white sticky-back felt in white.  I then found a skull and crossbones picture online that I used as my inspiration.  I followed This tutorial (well sort of) to make the flag.  I sewed a thin pocket in one side so that I could slide in a wooden dowel.  This was so easy to make, and could have been done with no sewing at all.

Pirate Photo Board

 Just for fun, I found a large piece of cardboard and painted this pirate on it.  My kids have had so much fun playing with it already!  I had to put a chair behind it for the little one to put his face in.

Arrrrr!

Captain Oliver on his big day!

I also bought this shirt for the birthday boy and drew the skull and crossbones on the pocket with a bleach pen.  Can't wait to do more bleach pen crafts, this one was fun!