So today I finally got around to purchasing the party accessories for my son’s upcoming pirate birthday party. I checked out several different online party supplies stores this year, in lieu of dragging my soon-to-be 5 year old out to the stores in person. He always wants a “treat” from whichever store we happen to be in and equally has an “idea” for why we need to purchase the most odd and completely useless products. Of course my 1st objective was to check out the discount party supplies. The party theme supplies he has his heart set on are the Pirates of the Caribbean so I purchased the plates and napkins. So easy, right? But then I got to thinking that my loathing of those treat bags with all the useless little toys that are overflowing from my boys’ closets (images of me TRYING to slyly throw them out, getting caught and screamed at because every boy must need another super ball, plastic yo-yo that doesn’t roll up all the way, or those little ball game maze things that they NEVER play with UNLESS I am trying to throw them out) and decided that my birthday party planning idea would be to be a helpful mom to my fellow moms and have the children leave the party with one decent pirate party toy. I ended up opting for pirate hats for the boys and pink pirate skull bandanas for the girls. The girls will also leave with matching bracelets (jewelry is always a nice party accessory) and the boys will leave with an eyepatch and, yes, a plastic sword. So maybe I’m not being as helpful as I thought. But let’s face it, boys find ANYTHING to use if they really want to have a sword. Case in point, my oldest took apart my vacuum cleaner today to get a hold of the metal tubing which he 1st used as a sword and then graduated it to being a bazooka.
