Jake & the Neverland B-day

The day after Mother's Day, Spencer was invited to a birthday party for a boy in his Speech Class. I didn't know him very well, & he's reeeeeally shy, but his mom said the party was going to be based on "Jake & the Neverland Pirates."Say what? To a girl with limited cable access, this was way over my head. Apparently this is a new show on the Disney Channel, & this lil' Cameron boy was obsessed with it. I searched online to see where I could find any toys related to the show, but they didn't exist. I instead found a barrage of people desperately pleading to the Disney execs to get the merchandise on the shelves & soon because their child won't even be satisfied with regular ol' Pirate stuff, just "Jake" Pirate stuff.
Yikes.
I decided to improvise. I repainted a light blue treasure chest of Spencer's that he wasn't using. I picked up some inflatable Pirate Paraphernalia at the Dollar Store & Painted it to match the accessories on the show & made a red Pirate sash to match Jake's. I made a treasure map out of some cream fabric & tan felt (of course) that I had on hand. Sprinkled it all with some gold pirate coins & voila! Almost-Instant Pirate Party gift that cost me about $3.
I loved how it turned out. Although, it made me think, "Hmm...how come I don't make this stuff for my own kids?" Guess I'll have to add this to that lengthy "To-Do" list of mine.