Pirate Themed Halloween Party

Growing up my mom decorated for EVERY holiday, and Halloween was no exception (see her home tour here.) She would also throw an annual Halloween party for grown ups for all of their friends. I have vivid memories of walking upstairs with the babysitter, hearing the laughter and wishing to be one of those grown-ups so I could party all night too. Don’t cry for me Argentina, we did TONS of kid stuff the other days of the month, no tears here.

But guess what!? That girl (me) turned into a grown up and now I LOVE carrying on this “grown up Halloween party” tradition for my friends. The one thing I’ve changed at my parties is having a theme for the party. Can you believe this is our sixth year doing a themed Halloween party? The theme was pirates this year, and everyone went above and beyond to look and act the part.

The place settings and centerpiece was one of my favorites, it looked so good! I used maps (earned and collected from Disney World) as the placemats (errr, runners) then rolled black napkins into “maps” and tied them with a red ribbon. I finished the look by topping the napkins with a mini skeleton and drink sword in the chest (originally I planned for the sword to hold the place cards for the place settings, but totally ran out of time.) With 14 guests at a dinner party its close quarters, so to save on space I didn’t set up the plates or silverware to squeeze as much in as possible. Check out all the details on the Fox 13 segment I did here.The beverage of the evening was mermaid champaign, chilled in a large seashell stollen from an actual mermaid. These themes and parties are spared NO expense! We started the party with dinner and to match the theme I served an array of food that actual pirates would have eaten (if they shopped at Costco) and encouraged everyone to eat, how pirates would eat. The menu included, rotisserie chicken, roasted potatoes, onions and butternut squash, bread, fresh fruit, veggies, and rum cake (defiantly authentic to actual pirates.) And I have to say, it was so fun to see my guests eating chicken legs off the bone! I had all of the guests wash hands with soap and kept the serving utensils to a minimum, did I mention I served rotisserie chicken? Yeah, they were tarring legs off with their bare hands, it was definitely pirate-ish. The highlight of the evening was when one of the guests grabbed a piece of cake with his hands, while others said “Don’t tell Chelsey!” We were all laughing hysterically when he said “Chelsey said to dig in, like an actual pirate!” Touche Friend!Here is my friend Melanie reenacting this epic moment.
Doesn’t the  fresh apples in the center of the bundt cakes look fresh and festive? Im pretty excited about how the food came together, and how easily (thanks to Costco, aka the official food supply of pirates.)Although dinner is a big part of the party, the highlight are always the games we have lined up. We started out with three games, the first was Pirate Family Feud. I started this segment with the actual family feud theme song and it was a fun way to transition into the first game. I actually found all of the pirate questions by googling “pirate family feud.” Easiest game ever. The second game was “pirate pong.” We set out six solo cups on each side and teams had to sink the others “ship” by bouncing “cannon balls” (ping pong balls) into the cups.The third game was a sword fight. Guests taped balloons to their chest with duct tape and using Styrofoam swords, with a thumb tac taped to the end tried to pop their opponents first. This came was surprisingly the most popular and definitely exciting to watch

This was the set up for out photos this year. This backdrop was found at Zurchers, it cam in a 50ft roll but wasn’t tall enough. We just put a piece on the top and then another on the bottom backwards, so the patter in the middle matched up. It actually worked really well for a $14 prop. Just look how great we all look!
  We had great food, hilarious games and ended the night on a high note, acting out a play my husband wrote. It was laugh-so-hard-you-cry, pee-your-pants. kind of hilarious! Again, another reason my guest list has hardly changed over the last 6 years. I have the BEST group of friends to make this my absolute favorite thing about Halloween. I can’t wait till next years party!!!