Ahoy there you mateys!

Cap'n Josh and some of his first mates!
Here's the Pirate pinata we converted from a soccer ball (gotta get creative with our China resources).

Here's the cake!

I am very proud of the cake I made for Josh's birthday.

For the Pirate cake, I used one store bought chocolate cake mix, chocolate icing, and white icing colored yellow and blue. I make a 9 inch cake and a loaf cake (put most into the loaf cake) and then cut the side of the front of the cake to make the bow. I used rolos on the side for the cannons, and little dove chocolate bars on the side of the boat. You can't see it, but I used one dove bar as the plank on the other side of the cake. I used chopsticks for the sails and red card stock for the sails. I used pretzels and green airheads for the palm trees, but I would use toy ones if you have them because the airheads did not stay stiff. I would refrigerate it after it is all together to keep the frosting in tact. I had fun with the party, because we also did pirate mustaches for the boy, face designs for the girls, gave out bandanas, eye patches and earrings to the girls. Also, I make a treasure map with a bunch of "x's" on it and we hit their party treat at the end of the party.

The only snafu was Coby choking and turning blue when Josh was opening gifts. Fortunately, Jeff was able to find out he wasn't choking and then administered a couple of quick CPR breaths and he was back. As Jeff rushed him to the doctor, Josh just casually mentioned "Oh, Coby is just jealous of all my great presents". Sounds like something you would hear from a little boy whose spiritual love language is receiving gifts! Needless to say, this will be a party these 5 - 7 year olds will not quickly forget!

If you have questions on how to do it, please let me know.