Pirate’s Treasure Hunt Party for Your Little Swashbuckler

When birthdays start closing in, I try to ask my girls what theme they want for their parties. Sometimes, I infuse a slight suggestion on what I think would be fun. I can’t remember if this was a fully-fledged idea from my oldest or if I had some influence. Based on these photos, I’d say it was likely her idea. Either way, I had fun planning this Pirate’s Treasure Hunt party!

Treasure Hunt Invitation

I created my invitation in Microsoft Word, as I generally do, and printed two invitations per page on computer paper by using horizontal orientation. Then, I took a wet tea bag and blotted the paper with the tea bag to stain it for an antique look. They dried out on baking sheets. When the paper was completely dried out, I used a long stick lighter over the sink to burn some of the perimeters for an extra warn look. I finished it up by rolling it into a scroll and tying it off with a bit of string.

Activity: Treasure Hunt

You’re not a true pirate unless you are hunting for some treasure!

Every pirate needs a treasure map to go on a treasure hunt. X marks the spot! I didn’t want all the kids to be standing around waiting for each to move through the activities, so I created three treasure maps in total with variations of each route. This ensured the groups wouldn’t go to an activity at the same time.

The list of ship stops included:

• Pirate’s Port
• Pirates Pick
• Wandering Eye
• Shark Bay
• Cannon Cabin
• Parrots Cove
• Ye Pirate Flag
• Davey Jones’ Locker
• Sunken Ship Yard
• Bone Yard

Pirate’s Port

There’s not much I love more than cardboard. It’s a running joke with my coworkers because they are fully aware of my adoration from the many times I have asked for big boxes. I was inspired by this pirate ship. My goal for this party was to have a ship for each pirate grouping to take along the map route for a true sailing pirate experience, but this was most certainly the time-intensive part of this party prep. I spent hours in the garage cutting and hot gluing the cardboard together into pirate ship shapes. By the third ship, I had perfected the curve at the front of the boat. I put portholes reinforced with borders on the sides to make it easier for the little pirates to carry their ships.

If you’re planning to make your own, I’d try to get 5 or 6 LARGE cardboard boxes. The back section on each boat is one box with the front panel cut out. Then the sides of the ship are one long box side each with the folding flaps. Use the extra pieces of the cardboard to glue as the top of the cabin, the trim around the windows and portholes and as supports for the front curve.

I also made these super cute and easy Pirate’s Cardboard Spyglasses for each Pirate Ship.

Pirates Pick

The next stop for all the pirates was to pick up their pirate hats and choose their pirate names. I bought inexpensive paper hats from somewhere off the internet and had a list of pirate names for them to review.

From here, their paths diverged.

Wandering Eyes

Plastic eyeballs from the dollar store and one of my Halloween cauldrons were all that were necessary for this eyeball toss. The eyeballs were kind of bouncy, so I cushioned it to prevent them from bouncing out. I also put the eye patches in the cauldron for them to pull out for themselves after the activity.

Shark Bay

I used some extra cardboard to create this shark cut out. It’s painted with acrylic paint and a black felt board was used to try to make the mouth background dark. After the pirates took their picture, they got a piece of treasure from the little treasure box to the side there in the picture.

Spy a Pirate Flag

I used the big field in the back of our property to hide three colored pirate flags for the pirates to find. I made the flags out of felt and glued paper skull and crossbones to it with a thin dowel for the post. When they found the flag, they could place it on their ship.

Davey Jones’ Locker

My mom let me borrow the toddler ball pit she had made for her grandkids, so I could fashion it for Davey Jones’ Locker. I hid four different items in the balls for each group to be able to find. They were only allowed to take one of each item.

Cannon Cabin

My kids love having balls in our netted trampoline, so it was easy to make that into a cannonball activity for the party. They didn’t get anything out of completing this activity except for getting some energy out.

Parrot Cove

Up next was Parrots Cove to add to their Pirate cliches. I provided paper with parrot outlines, scissors, feathers, markers, and glue for them to create their feathered friends. This activity took them the longest, as any craft is want to do.

Sunken Ship Yard

The Sunken Shipyard came next with an inflatable ship. The object of the activity was to throw hoops to hook the masts. After they were able to get all three, they were allowed to take their sword.

Bone Yard

I don’t honestly know how an eyeball would free your ship, but I was running out of ideas.

Walk the Plank

Then I forced them all to walk the plank into the ocean!

Pirate’s Grub

Easy snacks are my go-to at parties, especially when so much is involved with the other aspects. I made some super simple labels in Word and called it a day.

Pirate’s Cake!

Hope you enjoyed the run down and are able to use some of these ideas for your own party planning! If pirates aren’t your thing, how about Detectives?