Something New

One of my sisters has been reminding me that it has been a few months since I last posted. She is right. I have been busy. So for her- something new to view:

 September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Since my mother-in-law's "theme" this year is "Life is a Celebration," I decided that we should have a spontaneous Pirate Party. By the time the kids got off the bus I was practically ready for them (and they helped with the finishing touches).

 We dressed up,

 ate some fish,

 and more fish,

 and drank some fish (ice cube tray from the 99Cent Only Store).

 Hot dog pirate ships rounded out our nutritious menu. After dinner we watched Blackbeard's Ghost. The kids had fun. The decorations may still be up. It is close enough to Halloween to get away with such activities.

For a sample of many other things that I have been up to, I recently became the Cubmaster for our son's Pack (he is a new Tiger Cub and LOVING finally being a scout). This week is our first pack meeting, so before the last den meeting I decided to send home little invitations for all the boys. I have 46 boys in my pack, so I was trying to find something that wouldn't take too long, and that I wouldn't have to go to the store for. I have a Secret Agent theme planned for the night, so I made them some top secret mission briefing folders.

 I cut a regular file folder into quarters to make mini folders, and ran them through my printer to get the Top Secret Stamp.

Inside I had the message and secret code. I modified the CIA logo to make it say Cub Scout Intelligence Agency. They turned out well, and the boys liked them. Now to finish getting ready for the rest of pack meeting...

Movie Night: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

 We like pirates around here (in case you hadn't noticed) so when I saw that the public library was having a pirate party (dressing up encouraged) we had to go. That is, after we had a good swim first of course. Do you like how the boat is as big as the pool?

At the library we made P is for Parrot letters and heard some pirate stories.

Then we came home to watch the movie The Pirates! Band of Misfits (I had planned on watching Rise of the Guardians, because I heard the Easter bunny was in it, but was vetoed in favor of a pirate movie).

For dinner, I made pizza breadsticks. Lousy picture, I know, but sometimes I can only find my phone and it is not the greatest. The breadsticks, however, are. In the interest of preserving favorite family recipes, I shall share. When I make pizza or breadsticks, I always start with the same base- a breadstick recipe from one of those ward cookbooks that I have adapted slightly. I like it because I don't have to wait for it to rise. Yay for quick and easy!

Breadsticks:

1 T yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3+ C flour

Preheat oven to 415F-425F (depending on how hot your oven runs) Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Mix in the flour until it is only slightly sticky and rollable(add flour slowly- it is better the less flour you are able to use, but generally ends up taking closer to 4 or 5 cups). If I am making pizza, I roll out the dough in a circle and top with my favorite toppings (generally ranch dressing, mozzarella cheese, chicken, bacon bits, onions if I have them, and more mozzarella- I like a thick crust extra cheesy pizza). For breadsticks, I roll the dough out in a rectangle (about the size of a large cookie sheet). I spread the surface with garlic butter. Thinking back to elementary school when they were teaching paper folding- mentally divide the dough the hotdog way and put lots and lots of mozzarella cheese on the bottom half (you can add slices of pepperoni or other pizza toppings at this point if you would like- pepperonis are in the ones pictured above). Fold the top half over. Use your pizza cutter to cut strips about 1-1.5". Twist them as you lay them on a greased cookie sheet. Cover with more cheese (did I mention that I like mozzarella?) Bake. I'm not sure on the exact time, because I have a tendency to just put the pizza or breadsticks in the oven and pull them out when they are nice and golden brown. It is probably around 20 minutes.

 Since it was almost Easter, I jazzed up the popcorn a little bit. I made it up as I went along.

 First I popped some corn with my air popper. Then I laid it out on a couple of cookie sheets and drizzled with the most Easter-esque candy melts I had (the red looked a little more pink in real life, but not as much as it should have). I added Mini Whopper Robin Eggs and drizzled more candy melts. After a stint in the fridge to harden, I broke it up and put it in bags. It was tasty enough.

I might try it again with Kettle corn as the base, although that might make it too sweet. The kids all liked it- much better than the movie. Once was enough of that one. We should have gone with the Rise of the Guardians- we watched that one the next night and like it better.

Pirate Extravaganza- The Decorations

I didn't do a very good job of documenting everything for the pirate party, so I shall try to do my best to show you some of the decorations with what pictures I do have.

 Real pirates wear shades. And scowls. Behind them, you can see the treasure chest where the guests put the loot for Tiger.

 I quite liked how my serving counter backdrop turned out (inspiration came from here). Basically it is just dowels set in plaster of paris in cans spray painted black with some fabric hung from other dowels.

 Coincidentally, the week before the party, Tiger and Kitty had a pirate section at the preschool they attend. I mounted some of their artwork on some matching colored paper and laminated it.

 This anchor was inspired by a smaller version that came home in the kids' backpacks from preschool as well. I just made a bigger one (and laminated it because I could).

 I wanted to get some port holes so that it would look a little like being on a ship. This is where I was reminded once again of how technical my husband is. I asked his opinion on which waves to use and he started analyzing how water actually looks- even to the point of checking out google image searches. The backdrop is just a roll of the wrapping paper stuff from the dollar store. I took a sharpie and drew lines to make it look a little more like ship planks.

I liked how my wall treasure map lines turned out. They were super cheap- it is just red paper cut into 1"x2" rectangles (you know me- I laminated mine just because) and taped on the wall. It was time consuming, but I like how it looked.

I wrapped the line around the wall and ended it with a paper cross. The treasure chest on top there is just a cardboard box that I shaped like a chest and covered with some fabric.

It doesn't really show in the pictures that I took, but I ordered one set of these banners from Amazon and had them strung around the house. 100' went a long way and added a lot of decoration for less than $6.

Fishnets- Perfect for serving Goldfish

 When I decided to serve my Goldfish in fishbowls, I thought it would be cute to use a fishnet to scoop them out. Real fishnets would have been too big, not to mention a little pricey. Fortunately, while I was thinking about how to make my own fishnets, it also happened to be Easter time. The egg dippers for dying Easter eggs looked like they would be a perfect fit, and they were. After Easter I went and snagged up several boxes of the dye kits on clearance to make my nets. If you don't have the luxury of waiting till after Easter, I think crafting wire could be bent into the same shape.

 I traced circles onto some netting I already had. The circle will need to be at least twice as big as the net you want to make (I think that is the lid to some of those Gerber baby bowls that you can find in the baby section).

 Tie your string to the dipper.

 Ignoring the dipper, stitch a nice gathering stitch around the top of the circle of netting.

When you have gone around the entire top edge, gather the net in so that it is about the same size as the dipper, making sure it is gathered somewhat evenly. 

 Wrap the netting around the dipper, and using a whip stitch, go all the way around so that the net is securely attached to the dipper.

Tie off and admire your handy work.

They actually scoop up a surprising amount of fish. And look cute. Not bad for a few minutes time.

Pirate Extravaganza- The Food

 I know the pirate party was several months ago, but I realized the other day that I had never gotten around to posting a few things, so please excuse my negligence. If you have been sitting in suspense wondering what on earth I served my guests (particularly the smaller crowd, since I don't think I took any pictures of the family party after the friend party), I shall finally put you out of your misery. So without any further ado.... the food.

The main course was hot dog boats. Cute, but also so simple a pirate captain can grill them up, with one hand tied behind his back (ok, maybe it wasn't tied).

For the sails, I cut out some trapizoidish shapes with my Cricut (George and Basic Shapes cartridge, but only because I was cutting everything else out with my Cricut and it was available). I punched a hole in the top and bottom with a small hole punch, and ran a skewer through the sail. The pirate flags at the top I took from the cupcake printables here. I glued those to the top and had quick and easy boats.

 Because I like boats I also served cups of blue jello ocean with whipped cream waves, with pirate ships (cut out with the Paper Dolls Dress-up Cricut cartridge). I taped toothpicks to the back of the pirate ships to get them to stay in the jello.

 In addition to the cake, I also had cupcakes. I found some pirate cupcake wrappers at Jo-Anns that also had the flag toothpicks. I just frosted the cupcakes and rolled the tops in the crushed Nilla wafers to look like sand and go with the treasure map cake. To make them a little more exciting I made a cross out of licorice to put on each one.

 Not a spectacular photo, I know, but what pirate party would be complete without Goldfish? I found the fishbowls at the dollar store. I made the labels for each bowl to distinguish them. My favorite part of these is the fishnet I made to scoop out the fish. They actually held a surprising amount of fish, not to mention the fun factor of fishing for goldfish.

For the beverage, I served sea water (can you tell I had way too much fun with my printer for this party. I also got a lot of use out of my 2" circle punch). I wrapped some scrapbooking paper around little water bottles and glued the circles on the front. I failed to get a picture, but I also served Pirate Punch. That was just some Capri Suns with a label printed out that said "Pirate Punch" with a skull and crossbones. I just printed it out on some of that adhesive labels you find in the computer paper section at Walmart.

If I remember correctly, for the party which involved the adults that evening, I made some Jamaican Jerk chicken (kabob style), as well as some roasted potatoes, also kabobed (because skewers seemed like a good pirate party food. We also had some bbq pulled pork sliders that were held together with some sword shaped toothpicks, as well as the mango salsa with chips. Not to mention lots and lots of IBC Rootbeer in the glass bottles. There may have been more food, but that was a few months ago, and my memory has never been that spectacular. 

Felt Eye Patches

For the pirate party, I wanted eye patches. Every good pirate has at least one eye patch (and two in the case of the one pirate in How I Became a Pirate). But I HATE those cheap, plastic eye patches that are so uncomfortable to wear. Maybe that is a bit strong, but I really don't like them. So I decided to make my own. As a bonus, they ended up being so much cheaper to just make, and they are extra comfy to wear. What's not to like? I went through a couple of designs before I finally came up with this one using black felt, 1/4" elastic, and an empty soda bottle.

I found an eye patch  to use as my template. It turns out, bigger eye patches are a lot more comfortable than the smaller ones. For each eye patch, I cut out two pieces of felt. I then made a second eye patch template about 1/8"-3/16" narrower on all sides and cut those out of a plastic bottle (I think this one held root beer at one point- I guess that makes this an upcycled project).

 The plastic is to help give the patch a little form so that it doesn't press against your eye (very uncomfortable, trust me), I cut a slit half way up, and hot glued it over on itself. 

 So that my patch would also be more rounded I sewed a dart in it. I just folded the felt in half, and starting in the middle, sewed a slightly angled line. It is possible this step could be skipped since the plastic makes the eye patch rounded, but since I didn't ever try it that way, I don't know.

 I repeated the above step for the back side of the patch.

 Then I sewed them together, making sure to insert a piece of elastic in the top "corners" (also making sure the elastic formed an untwisted loop). I would sew along one edge (about 1/8" seam allowance so that the plastic fits inside), then insert the plastic and finish sewing around the remainder of the patch. I believe I cut my elastic (1/4" black) at 14 1/2", but that measurement can be adjusted based on your pirate's head circumference.
For durability, where I slid the elastic in I reinforced my seams by going over it a couple of times. 

There you have it: inexpensive, comfortable felt eye patches. I contemplated painting on some skulls and crossbones, or cutting something out with my Cricut to iron on (that would need to be done after sewing the dart, but before inserting the plastic), but decided to just leave them plain, but if you want to jazz them up you are more than welcome to. Whatever floats your boat (which any good pirate can tell you- it is a very good thing to have your boat float).

NOTE:
The eye patch template here is about the same size as what my plastic inserts ended up being. Just draw a line about an 1/8"-3/16"" out around one of the patches and there is your felt patch template. I did make some using that template (with the dashed line being my plastic template) and they weren't too bad. They are just a little more comfortable in the larger size.

Pirate Extraveganza- The Party Activities

It only took half a week, but I think I have finally caught up on my sleep. I figured it was probably about time that I posted the rest of the pictures from the party. I don't really feel comfortable posting pictures of other people's children without their permission, so I apologize for the lack of action shots. I also failed to charge the batteries in my camera before the party, so the majority of pictures were very gratefully taken by my wonderful mother-in-law.

I spent enough time in Cub Scouts to know that I would need a gathering activity while all of the kids were arriving, so that I didn't have them running wild all over the place. I found this pirate shoulder parrot craft at Disney's Family Fun. The kids had fun coloring their own parrots.

 Meanwhile, I had set up a simple photo booth to take their pictures. I had plans for a more elaborate backdrop, but ran out of time. Oh, well.

After everyone had made their parrots and gotten their picture taken, we introduced the Pirate Training Program and gave them each their own "treasure map" with outline. The guests were 4-5, so the treasure map was more for the sake of having a map than actually finding anything.

 First on the agenda was reading How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon. I love that book- the pictures are amazing. The kids were surprisingly attentive while I read the story to them. After the story, they all were given loot bags with pirate stickers in them (Walmart had some pirate party supplies).

 Next on the agenda was Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate. I drew a picture of a pirate on poster board and covered it with contact paper for the backdrop. For the eye patches I cut out a patch shape (I used these as my pattern-there were other printables as well) and laminated them 

 The prize for everyone (cause pirates share their loot), was an eye patch, of course.

Eventually I will post my tutorial for how I made these.

The third activity was Sink the Pirate Ship with the bean bag cannonballs. The prize: cannonballs (Whoppers).

I created the labels in Word (circles 1.9" in diameter with a 7 width on the outside line) and cut them out with a 2" punch, and glued them on scrapbooking paper that I had cut into 3"x4" rectangles and folded over little bags that were 3" wide (I found these in the jewelry section at Walmart). Not that anyone noticed, but my candies were all in multiples of 5, just because I am OCD like that.

The next activity was a Cannonball Pop. 

I inserted five plastic gold coins in black balloons and blew them up (that is them in the garbage bags on the trampoline). The kids had to sit on their balloons and pop them to get their prize.

Next up was Walking the Plank (the wind might have taken out some of my sharks and waves). I cut the shark fins and waves out of foam board from the dollar store. I made bases from scraps of foam board that I hot glued on, and spray painted them.

Avast ye! The kids were pretty good at walking the plank.

The prize for this activity changed several times. What I really wanted were some gummy sharks. I could not find them anywhere in town. On-line, they were more expensive than I wanted to spend. Idea number 2 was some hooks for their hands. I found some online at Party City that were only 50 cents each. When I went to pick them up, I discovered that the Party City here had gone out of business. My mother-in-law checked at the Party City near her, only to find out they were being discontinued and were all sold out. That left me scrambling at the last minute to come up with something, hence more "gold" (Wearther's Original). If I had more time, I found a hook tutorial here that wasn't too cheesy)

 For Go Fish, I hung an old shower curtain on some PVC pipe that I hung from our First Up gazebo. I cut fish out (Cricut Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge) and laminated and taped to the front. For extra color my brother-in-law and I taped up streamers.

My fishing pole was a dowel that I painted brown and used some jute twine with a clip attached to the end.

The prize: Swedish Fish.

Next up was a Buried Treasure dig. I filled an underbed storage tote with ring pops, necklaces, marbles, and coins left over from the Cannonball Pop, and covered it all with sand.

 I think everyone had fun digging for treasure. If I was to do this again, I think I would have used two totes to accommodate the number of pirates I had in attendance.

 Last on our list was X Marks the Spot.

 This activity went through several idea stages as well. I thought about actually burying a large treasure chest for the kids to dig up, but thought that would not be exciting (think 5 year-olds standing around watching one person dig). I thought about burying individual treasure chests for each to dig up, but I don't like sand that much. Finally, I was inspired by Easter Eggs. I glued tongue depressors together to form and X and spray painted them red (I made enough for each child to find one). My brother-in-law hid them in a designated area. The kids had to find an X which they could exchange for their personal treasure chest, which was filled with a pirate bandanna.

 The treasure chests I printed out here from this website. I cut them out, laminated them, and glued them together. I put a little piece of velcro on the lock to hold them closed.

 The bandannas I made using the Simplicity 2792 pattern (I made the large size). I should probably mention that the weather didn't cooperate for this party. The forecast called for 102 F of sizzling sunshine, and it was. Other than the heat, it turned out great. I had enough adults on hand to keep the kids from going wild, and enough kids to keep it just the right amount of party crazy.

 After they completed all of the activities, each child received their own Certificate of Completion, designating them as Pirates.
After becoming Pirates, it was present and food time. The timing worked out perfectly. We were just getting done eating when the parents arrived to take their little pirates home.

And one last picture, just because she was such a cute Pirate. Kitty had a great time at her brother's party. She was glad that one person wasn't able to make it, because being the silly mom I am, when I was planning all the activities, I just planned for the number of kids we invited, forgetting I had one more little girl here who would like to participate.