Magical Forest Party - Elf Grog & Fairy Fizz

This is just an idea I have and hope to be able to execute this party very soon.  I wanted to submit in now to share it so others can try it or benefit.  My idea is a Magical Forest party for a co-ed birthday for any age.  Well at least walking and talking age minimum.  You will have the girls come in pastel dresses to become fairies and the boys in green to become little elves. You can pick up fairy wings and elf ears during Halloween or at your local costume shop to give the girls and boys.  The main objective is to transform your house, backyard, basement, or any space you decide to have this party into a magical forest and garden.  In order to do this, you need lots of  plants, ivy, leaves, trees, flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, and garden statues of wood/garden creatures/animals. This would be anything from frogs to fairies to gnomes to mushrooms. 

You definitely need twinkle string lights too.  My suggestion to get the best deal on all of this stuff is wait for summer to be over and all the garden items will go on sale pretty cheap. Let's start from the top, in the entry place a garden arch with ivy, lights, flowers, and butterflies for all the kids to cross under from reality to a magical place.  You can take cut tree limbs wrap them in twinkle lights and hang from the ceiling so the area is dim, but still has light to see.   If you do not want or cannot hang anything form the ceiling then take the same wrapped limps and place them against the wall. 

You also take your fake Christmas tree, borrow more from friends if you can, and put it up around the perimeter of the room.  You can and should decorate the tree or trees with the flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, fairies, and other woodland creatures in and around it.  You can put the activity /craft area on the floor on a big blanket, preferably in a tan or green solid or flower print.  Place leaves, flowers, statues of woodland creatures, and mushrooms on the area. 

If you want to make rocks for the kids to sit on, put pillows of different sizes and shapes and put them wrap them gray fabric.  In order to keep the fabric on, put the pillow in the middle of a piece of cut fabric, bring up all the sides into a bunch, and wrap with flower ponytail holders.  Place the same garden statues of gnomes, fairies, elves, frogs, birds, mushrooms, and so on around the activity/craft area as well. 

You can make a little bubbling brook or stream out of blue-ish shiny fabric, like gossamer.  You will need to put plant life, creatures, and rocks down it's banks.  Your activities/crafts are endless.  The girls can make wands by using dowel rods, cut out stars, glitter, ribbon, and twine. The boys can make elf hats by taking green cardboard party hats and decorating them anyway or you can actually have them make the hats from green felt squares.  You can have your husband or a male friend dress up as a wizard or troll to tell them a story. 

You can find plenty of children books on fairies and elves at the library or you can make one up.  You can have the children color fairies, elves and other magical garden pictures.  These can be found on the Internet on several sites. 

A game to place is Lost Magical Stones, have the children find stones/gems around the area that were hidden by busy little gnomes.  You can do a specific color for each kid and the first one to find them all wins or the child that finds the most wins.  This would depend on children's ages and how crazy you want it to get in the space.   You can even create a quest led by the old wizard to save the Fairy Queen and Elf King by having the kids figure out clues and finishing tasks, like find all the gems to give to the troll to get the new clue or task.  Even a scavenger hunt would be fun, think Lord of the Rings. 

Food/Drink:  This depends on the time of day you hold it, but here are some ideas.  Little Fairy sandwiches, white bread spread with strawberry jam/jelly cut into stars, flowers, and diamonds.  Little Elf crackers, Ritz crackers with cheese cut into circles and pepperoni slices on top. Fairy Wands  pretzel sticks, big or little, dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles on one end.  

Fairy Fizz, pink lemonade with pop rocks, makes a lovely drink.  Elf Grog - green punch with lime sherbet balls and ginger ale.  You will want to soften the sherbet, take 1 scoop form it in balls in any size, and then put them on a cookie sheet back in the freezer overnight.  You can have separate bowls of different colored jellybeans to represent different gems. You can use your computer to print out labels for each bowl, container, or whatever you decide to use. 

Pixie Dust  pixie sticks empty into small drink cups and dipstick, which can be any type of candy stick.  Of course slices veggies and fruit of any kind are good ideas too.  The cake, well this can be a number of things, so you will want to see what your little girl and/or boy wants. 

Goody Bags/party favors:  They have wings, ears, hats, and wands, but if you want to give out more for them to take home, you may do so.  I am hoping to throw this party for my niece and nephew at the end of September or beginning of October since they birthday's within a week of each other.  Plus they have a lake house with lot of trees to help with the Magical Forest theme.