pirate party for thing one

my baby turned 6 the day after Christmas, i still can't believe it! we recently discovered jake and the neverland pirates on disneyjr.com and we've all been on a bit of a pirate kick lately. even i've been shouting "aww coconuts!" on occasion. so i decided to let thing one lead a search for pirate treasure for his birthday party. this marks a mile stone for him, because this is his first party that was really about him and his little friends. past parties have mostly been about getting all the family together and, while fun was had, they weren't really what you'd call 'kid' parties. now, being these kids' mom is my full time job, and i admit that i want to get work awards and promotions just as much as anyone else out there in the work force. my bosses are just a bit shorter than most, no less capricious. to put it simply: i am the primary disciplinarian around here on any average day but i still want to be the cool mom sometimes too. saturday was a win for me. even though we were sick my husband and i (with help) managed to make a treasure map, leave clues, bury a treasure chest full of goodies, and all around have a blast with our boys and their friends. we ate cinnamon sugar popcorn and chicken drumsticks, and drank hot chocolate. i still feel like a hero of legend every time thing one says 'that sure was fun, mama' to me, and it was all pretty easy really. with the possible exception of digging the hole for the chest (a cigar box)which gave my poor husband a sore back. to kick it off, tristin got a chess set, in which was hidden a mysterious clue that led him to a map in a bottle, which led him to an X in the yard. all the kids took turns with the shovel that was handily leaning next to a tree by the X digging the treasure out. at one point we thought one of the guests was going to faint from excitement because the shovel finally hit 'something'. the treasure chest contained some booty, and a lot of craft supplies which they all got to use to decorate their own treasure chests (more, smaller, cigar boxes) to take home. when it was all over my son cried. the poor little guy was just having too much fun. i felt bad for him, of course, but i was also never so proud.