DIY Pirate Themed Easter Egg Hunt and DIY Treat Cannon

In today's post, we'll share ideas for a Pirate Themed Easter Egg Hunt! We start with an Easter basket that contains a treasure map, share a few fun ideas to include in the egg hunt, and end with a color-your-own pirate ship that contains a treasure chest full of treasure in the form of golden eggs and gem eggs.  We then share two DIY Cannon Projects - a DIY Large Snack Cannon and DIY Mini Candy Cannon.  

Project The Pirate Themed Easter Egg Hunt Supplies
I listed the item numbers for the Easter egg hunt items that are from Oriental Trading so that it's easy for you to find the exact items if you search on their website. 

• Toys
• Color Your Own Pirate Ship Playhouse 
• Supplies
• Colorful Masking Tape Set  
• 1 piece of paper to draw a treasure map
• Plastic Easter Eggs of Your Choice Here is what we used:
• Sea Creature Plastic Easter Eggs 
• Jumbo Diamond Plastic Easter Eggs 
• Metallic Golden Easter Eggs 
• Noah's Ark Plastic Easter Eggs 
• Snacks
• 2 cases of Pirate's Booty (Individual snack bags)

Directions
Step 1 - Create a Treasure Map and X's to mark the location of treasure

Create a treasure map that gives clues for your child to follow. Personally, our son is still learning the difference between left and right, so we added an educational component to our Easter treasure hunt by using colorful X's to mark spots that he then needed to take 3 steps to the left or 3 steps to the right to find treasure. The dashes indicate the bottom of the X. For instance, there are eggs on the other side of the couch here which required him to take 3 steps to the right below.

Step 2 - Set up a Pirate Ship Playhouse

We used the trendy Color Your Own Pirate Ship Playhouse from Oriental Trading.  It's super easy to set up and is sure to help create a wonderful childhood memory! 

Step 3 - Stuff and hide Pirate Themed Eggs 

We have a few pirate themed eggs in our collection.  

We placed the Sea Creature Plastic Easter Eggs around the Pirate Ship Playhouse so that we could pretend that the pirate ship and sea creatures were swimming.  We also placed some of the Noah's Ark Plastic Easter Eggs around the pirate ship.

We filled a treasure chest basket with the Metallic Golden Easter Eggs and the Jumbo Diamond Plastic Easter Eggs. We also randomly hid some of these golden eggs and gem eggs throughout the house.

Finally, we created a large snack cannon. This is an easy DIY project, but be sure to be very careful when you use them and to wear protective gear. Never leave children unsupervised with the cannon and don't shoot stuff out of it too hard.  Let me share the details.

Project: Large Snack Cannon (Sling shot style)

Supplies

• 1 concrete tube (This is made from cardboard. You will find these in the fencing section of most home improvement stores)
• 1 exercise resistance band
• 1 can of black spray paint
• 1 paper plate
• 1 roll of black masking tape
• 1 roll of white masking tape
• 1 pair of scissors
• 1 or more cases of Pirate's Booty to launch from the cannon

Directions
1. Drill two holes into the side of the cardboard tube. Drill two more holes directly across from the previous two.

2. Lace the resistance band through the holes and tie knots.

3. Paint the cardboard tube with the black spray paint and allow to dry. (We removed the resistance band before spray painting and then reinserted it after the paint dried.)


4. Cut the paper plate from one edge to the center and then form a cone that easily fits into the cardboard tube. Err on the side of it being slightly smaller in diameter so that it will fall out of the cannon easily.

5. Use the black masking tape on the edges of the cannon to make the edges look cleaner.

6. Create cardboard wheels and tape them to the side of the cannon.  

7. Fill the cannon with Pirate's Booty and then use the resistance band like a slingshot to launch the snacks! 

8. Be safe when using this cannon and never let children play with it. Here are some tips. Be sure that no one will be hit by anything that shoots out of the cannon, including the contents or the resistance band.  We have everyone wear protective gear and googles. We launch the snacks in the opposite direction of everyone and then let our children run to grab the snacks after the launch.  Only my husband and I operate the cannon; never children.  We are careful when launching items so that things do not fly too far and hit anything. We never pull too hard on the resistance band, since it could potentially rip or snap back. 

Enjoy your Easter Egg Hunt, Mates!