• Heave ho and on with the party planning!pirate image by astoria from Fotolia.com
  
  If your girl is the adventurous, swashbucklin' type, then a pirate-themed birthday party is sure to leave her talking about the party months after it's over. Make sure your party plans are in shipshape to ensure that young buccaneers are thrilled with the entertainment, the grub and the grog.
  
  

Invitation Ideas

• Send pirate flag or treasure map invitations. Both are relatively easy to make at home, since you can find impressive treasure maps and pirate flag images for free via the Internet. Amp up the pirate-speak in the invitation's prose. For example: Blow me down! Cap'n Amanda is 8. If you're not up on your pirate lingo, check coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com for a list of pirate words and phrases.
  
  

Pirate Activities

• Have the group decorate their own pirate flags. Contrary to popular belief, more than one kind of pirate flag sailed the high seas. Provide glue and cutouts of popular pirate shapes and motifs, including bones, hourglasses, skulls, swords and skeletons. Make sure there's glue, sequins, construction paper, scissors, ribbon and glitter to add additional girlie touches.
  
  Pirate girls also enjoy playing dress-up. Set up a pirate dressing room in your home and supply the group with old jeans, belts, shirts with holes and bandannas. Get some inexpensive costume jewelry such as gaudy rings and long, beaded necklaces, and throw those into the dress-up pot. Don't forget makeup. Pirate girls look best with dark eyes and bright red lips. Depending on the age of the kids, you can let the troop do each other's make-up or get an adult to help.
  
  

Games, Me Hearties!

• Prepare a treasure map, printing it (if using a computer) or drawing it (if working freehand) on construction paper. Cut up the map into puzzle pieces, and send a piece out with each invitation. Ask invitees to bring their section of the map with them to the party, so that the kids can work on assembling it together. Once partygoers have the map taped up in one piece, young buccaneers should work together to follow its route and find the "buried treasure." Depending on the weather, hide the pirate's booty somewhere outside or indoors for the troop to find at the end of their quest. A big pile of chocolate coins fits with the party's theme, and is easy to split up equally between kids.
  
  

Ideas for Grub

• Make cute "hidden treasure" cupcakes by spooning a few hard candies into chocolate cupcake batter. The candies sink while baking, giving children the chance to find delightful surprises when they take their first bites. If you want to serve ice cream too, spoon out chocolate ice cream into cupcake holders beforehand, making sure each scoop is as round as possible. You've just made frozen, edible cannonballs for your crew.
  
  For the main course, coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com recommends hot dog ships. Stab cooked wieners with little pirate flags and serve with goldfish crackers. Other ideas include chicken legs that guests have to eat pirate-style (hands only), golden chicken nuggets with ruby sauce (ketchup) and seaweed pasta (green spaghetti or linguine).