My oldest daughter's birthday is one week prior to Halloween. Over the years, we've included the whole Halloween celebration into her birthday from time to time. Last year, when she turned 13, she decided she wanted a "Pirates of the Caribbean" birthday party theme. I figured it was one of my last at-home "theme" birthday parties to throw. The days of Dora the Explorer, Strawberry Shortcake, Disney Princess were gone for good. Here was my chance to do it one more time.
If you are familiar with the Johnny Depp movie franchise of Pirates of the Caribbean, you know there are some great lines in the movies. My 2 daughters and their best buddy Emily absolutely loved quoting from the movie. Their favorites were "I've got a jar of dirt and guess what's inside it!" and "Why is the rum gone?"
Naturally, I took off on all this and I decorated the house with plenty of skulls, skeletons and borrowed pirate gear such as plastic swords and pirate flags. Doing this at Halloween time made it very easy. I have a large trunk (a genuine family antique) that sits behind our sectional sofa. I opened it up and filled it like a pirates treasure chest with plastic jewels, cups and pieces of eight gold coins (the big black thing is our wireless stereo component).
More decor including a jar of eyeballs and a framed quote from the movie...
I printed still photos of the characters that I found on the internet, aged the paper with ink and popped them into cheap frames we already had. Then I signed them as though they were autographed. The black belt was part of a costume. used lots of dyed or dark colored cheesecloth.
I also sent the girls on an indoor scavenger hunt where they had to find a small treasure box of goodies.
I found all sorts of skeleton table decor including spoons, forks and knives that were ivory and in the shape of bones from Oriental Trading Company. Cups came from the dollar store.
I mocked up some new labels for real wine bottles to make them look like they all belonged to Capt. Jack Sparrow.
But the piece de resistance was my Jar of Dirt cake. First, I have to tell you that it is very important you NEVER BAKE A CAKE IN A BALL GLASS JAR. These jars are not meant for dry oven heat and can create some scary chemical reactions according to a university study I read. No problem. I just bought Ball jars (Mason jars) with a wide mouth. I baked a cake in a regular rectangular cake pan and used a biscuit cutter to cut circles of cake just the right size. I alternated layers in the jar with cake circles and piped icing tinted to resemble dirt. I topped off the cakes with Wilton candy skulls I found at Michael's and added red gel icing eyes. Then I made labels and glued them on.
All in all everything was a hit and the birthday girl loved it. If you have any questions, just email me.
