Pirate Party Arghhhh !!!!!

Ahoy Me Hearties!!

Today we set our sights on the Interplay Craft Pirate Party box, a perfect way to while away a couple of hours shore-leave for you and your little landlubbers! Whether you are having a party or just looking to entertain this set is sure to amuse any future pirate wannabes.

The bounty aka what's in the box:

• 6 Pirate Treasure Chests (ready to paint)
• 6 Pirate Hats
• 6 Adjustable Headbands (for the Pirate Hats)
• 6 Stickers of Skull and Crossbones (to stick on the hats)
• 6 Pirate Eye Patches 
• 6 Elastic strings (for the Eyepatches)
• 12 Pots Of paint in four Colours
• 6 Paint Brushes
• 24 Gold Pirate Doubloons
• 1 Set of instructions and fun game ideas

So with the box pillaged my little pirates were all geared up ready to get to work! Whilst the Interplay Craft Pirate Party pack is aimed towards kids from ages 5-8 according to the box my 10 year old  daughter had a go as well as she loves to participate in craft activities. I didn’t in anyway feel the product was aimed beneath her and in fact I even joined in - painting a treasure chest and wearing a skull and crossbones hat! We also had a few stowaways at our gathering as you can see from the picture below...

So we got to work adding colour to arr (pirate joke) plastic treasure chests with the small pots of paints provided and I was instantly surprised at how good the quality of the paint was. It covered the plastic really well and the colours were vibrant and opaque. Perhaps the only downside was that it might work better if the pots were pre-sorted in rows of varying colours so that they could be easily distributed amongst the crew instead of being attached together in several rows of the same colour. Whilst you can just as easily separate each pot from the row with scissors we found this somewhat fiddly as the individual pots didn’t balance well after they were ‘separated from the main ship’ so to speak! In the end we propped them up against DVD cases to ensure no blood paint was spilled and to avoid mum having to swab the deck! It’s a minor quibble though and hardly call for a mutiny against this fun and very engaging product which is almost worth it’s weight in gold!

Making there Pirate hats 

Some time later we had finished painting our treasure chests and were ready for some grub and grog (food and drink to those of ye who haven’t yet sailed the seven seas!) and then played some pirate games while we waited for the paint to dry (this took about 30 minutes).

Peg Leg Pirate

The aim of this game was to see who could stand on one leg the longest. Of course mummy was no good at this one and to make it even more tricky we even tried the recommended blindfolded variation!

The Captain Says

This next game was just like ‘Simon Says’. We all had a turn and playing this was great fun as we had to think up pirate themed ideas like ‘the Captain says sing a pirate shanty‘ or ‘the captain says squawk like a Parrot’. But be warned if the Captain does not say ‘the captain says’ then you could be made to walk the plank for disobeying orders!

There are plenty more games to play including Musical Pirate Ships which is a bit like musical chairs only the chairs form a boat and the boat is sinking as well as X Marks the Spot which is a pirate version of pin the tale on the donkey which sees a crew member place a X on the floor for a blindfolded shipmates to locate. Whomever places their treasure chest nearest the X wins!

By the time we had finished following the instructions of the pirate games from our set we found our treasure chests were dry. We were all really pleased with the results. They all looked very colourful and quite authentic which helped us feel we were well on our way to earning our pirate stripes. With this decorative work now completed we had just one more game to play that involved using our treasure chests and our pirate golden doubloons. The doubloons are excellent quality by the way and perhaps surprisingly made of metal. The look a little like actual £1 coins although I'm not sure they’d be accepted at your local supermarket!

Our Treasure Chests

The Treasure Hunt

No Pirate Party would be complete without a good old pirate treasure hunt, The aim of this game was to hide the golden doubloons around the house and then your little pirates had to find the booty. We decided to add some chocolate coins and sweets to ours as well to extend the adventure. WARNING: this game might make your house look like it had been attacked by the legendary sea beast the Kraken! Once the house was thoroughly ransacked and the kids had found all the captain’s treasure and the game was complete.

Phew... it was over and we all had a fab time playing with the Pirate Party box. Obviously we can now play the games at anytime and the treasure boxes, doubloons, hats and eye patches are of a good quality and a great keepsake so there will no doubt be further adventures to come. It’s a brilliant idea for a themed children’s party (although more sets would be required for groups of more than 6) and with them all making there own Treasure chest its like a party bag in itself.  My own kids had such a good time they are already asking about the other party boxes that Interplay produce so whether you have a pirate or a princess these are a great way to amuse the kids at any time.

The Pirate Party box from Interplay is arr-ty, active and engaging long-term fun for all the family and gets a big thumbs up in my house. Just remember were you hide all your doubloons!

Interplay Craft Pirate Party box is available from there site or places like amazon starting at £19.99 ......