Fairytopia Party 6yr - Earn your Wings

Mermaidia/Fairytopia Party for six year old.  My daughter just celebrated her sixth birthday party.  She loves Barbie Fairytopia/Mermaidia, and wanted her party to have this theme.  We just had a pool built this summer, so thought it would be perfect to have the party at home with the pool area being Mermaidia, and turning the indoor area into Fairytopia. 

To start, for the invitations I had a friend help me with Photoshop to merge a clip-art picture of a Fairytopia fairy in a garden with my daughter's picture.  She had gone to Libby Lu's a few months earlier, so I had pictures of her with her hair all up, a tiara on and sparkles on, etc.  I put her head on the fairy picture so it looked like she was a Fairytopia fairy.  I then printed this on sparkly clear vellum and added pink and white glitter glue to glitter-up the invitation, and glued some crystal stars around too. 

On the back, I modified a poem I found on this website.  It said "Peek into the land of Fairytopia, and what will you see?  A sparkly little fairy, flying amongst the trees.  Her name is xxx, and she is turning six.  Please join us for a party, where there will be lots food and tricks.   The good fairies there will help you earn your wings, and we'll play games together, and make pretty fairy things.  We will also travel to Mermaidia, and swim in the great blue sea.  Please bring your bathing suit with you, and your mermaid tail if you please.   Hope you can join us!  Date, Time, RSVP, etc. 

The invitations turned out really pretty, and I had lots of compliments and questions on how I did it.  For the Fairytopia area, I made around 50 large tissue paper flowers (cheap and easy to make) in different shades of pink, white, purple and yellow.  I taped them to the ceiling, and strung bright green crepe paper throughout to look like leaves and vines, and taped some butterflies around to look like a beatiful garden.  I had ordered a Fairytopia table centerpiece and Fairytopia tablecloths, and had extended our dining room table with card tables and extra chairs so all of the kids (18) could fit in the same room. 

Next, I had picked up a bunch of spring colored flowers in bunches on clearance at a craft store (90% off).  I snipped all of the flowers off of the bunches so I had a ton of free flowers.  I spread some of them around on the table.  Next, at each place setting, I had a pink plate, Fairytopia napkin, fairy wings (ebay) and a chocolate wand (on clearance after a holiday at a cooking store).  The room looked so festive and pretty! 

For the Mermaidia area (the pool), I had picked up some floating silk lilly pads with flowers at a silk flower store (also saw them on ebay, but less expensive here).  We then had a bunch of those battery-operated swimming fish, so I put those in the pool.  With the fish swimming around, and the flowering lilly pads floating, it looked like a beautiful live little lake.  I also hung different shades of blue balloons up along our pool fence. I also put up our inflatable water slide for the kids to go on.

As a side note, I spent a long time calling around until a found a life guard who could monitor the pool the entire party - best money I spent!  I wasn't sure how many parents would drop their kids off and how many would stay, and I knew my husband and I would be in and out so this was a great investment.  Anyway, I decided a fun way to get the kids into the groove of the party would be to start with a little treasure hunt.  I made up little cards for each family coming to the party. 

I had picked up these mermaid Barbie-like dolls at a dollar store - two dolls (mermaid "sisters") for a dollar.  I then wrote the name of each girl coming on the back of each set dolls.  We had some boys coming, so I bought toy dragons at a toy store and wrote their names on them (I had a bit of hard time trying to incorporate the boys into this theme, but this worked out great!). 

The cards, which we handed to each family coming in the door, said "To Earn Your Fairy Wings  The evil sorceress has locked the mermaids of Mermaidia away in a far-away cave!  It is your job to rescue them and bring them back to their home in Mermaidia!  If you do so, you will earn your fairy wings. 

1.Go to the cave (trampoline).  There are two mermaid sisters in the cave that have your name written on their backs.  Find your mermaid sisters and rescue them from the cave. 

2.Take your mermaid sisters, and slide them down the magical waterfall (water slide).  The magic water will make them feel stronger for their journey back to Mermaidia. 

3.Take your mermaids from the magical waterfall, and into the land of Mermaidia (the pool).  The mermaids will be so happy to be home, they will most likely want to leap and flip into the air, landing in the water.  Throw them up so they land in the water and return safely to their homes.  Try on a mermaid tail to see how you like being a mermaid! 

4.The mermaid sisters are yours to keep, so once you are done swimming in Mermaidia, please bring them inside with you and put them with your things.   

Congratulations!  You have saved the mermaids from the evil sorceress, and you have now earned your fairy wings.!  Good job!!" 

My mom and I had sewn the mermaid tails ourselves.  I thought it would be fun for the girls to have mermaid tails to try on at the pool, and it would be cute to have pictures of them in the tail looking like a mermaid.  Luckily the fabric store had Halloween-type fabric out, and I found the perfect green, scale, mermaid-looking fabric.  I also bought a pink sparkly bathing-suit type material, and we made a total of three tails.  Originally I had looked on-line for some sort of costume mermaid tails that could be worn in the water, but only found professional photographer tails for like $250.  This material cost me around $15 and made three tails (and were very easy to sew with no pattern, even for a novice like me!).   The kids all got really into the mermaid rescue, and had fun doing the little obstacle course to earn their fairy wings. 

About an hour into the party, we had pizzas delivered, and had the girls dry off so they could come in to Fairytopia.  We had pizza, fruit salad, ceasar salad, veggies, spinach dip, juice boxes, soda, chips, etc.  I had also found an inexpensive mermaid mold on ebay, and made mermaid-shaped ice cubes.  I then made a light blue punch and had the mermaids floating in the punch.  My daughter and I also made mermaid shaped lollipops and had them sitting out for everyone to take. 

Once they finished their pizza, it was time for cake.  I had made one 9" round cake, and used light pink frosting around the base, and light green frosting on top.  The frosting matched a Fairytopia cake topper I found on ebay that had a fairy in a flower that opened slightly.  I then piped another matching yellow color around the cake and put sugar flowers around the base of the cake.  It turned out really pretty!  I also had a mini-doll cake pan (the same shape as one of those large Barbie cakes - just individual size).  I made each girl their own fairy cake, using different color pastel frosting, sugar flowers, and little wings on their backs.  They turned out so cute, and the girls were just thrilled to get their own fairy cakes. 

Next, I had a fairy come to the door and surprise the girls.  She read a fairy story, and did face painting.  I also had four craft stations set up for those girls who weren't in line to get their faces painted.  One craft was a headband, and I used those flowers I had clipped and quick-drying craft glue so that they could make a flower headband.  This was a very easy craft and the headbands turned out really pretty. 

Next, I bought little vial necklaces on ebay (inexpensive),and I had strung glittery pink and/or white ribbon through the caps beforehand.  I found "fairy dust" glitter (extra fine) on clearance at a craft store, so each girl got to pick what color fairy dust they wanted in their necklace.  Again, the girls loved these.  I also had a station for each girl to make a flower fairy like this: http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1245.  Beforehand, I had folded the wire into the fairy shape, so all the girls would have to do would be do put the flowers on and draw the face on (since they are only six - didn't want to make it too complicated).  These are really cute - my daughter and I had made these before together so I wanted to have these at the party. 

Again, we had some boys at the party, and knowing they wouldn't want to make any of the fairy crafts, I bought them t-shirts and patches with their names and a variety of activities, along with patch glue so they could make t-shirts.  The crafts were all big hits!  To open presents, I decided to try to make a little game of things, and we had all of the kids sit in a circle.  We had fairy-like music playing downstairs, and the kids passed a balloon around until the music stopped.  That child then got to bring their present up and sit with the birthday girl while she opened it.  I, of course, controlled the music, so I stopped it on each kid I knew hadn't had a turn.  The kids thought it was hilarious trying to pass a balloon around.  It made the gift opening a litte more exciting and interactive.  After this, the girls went upstairs and put on dress up clothes, and we turned the music up and they danced.  They were having so much fun they didn't want to leave.  They all looked so cute with their faces painted, fairy wings, flower headbands and fairy dust necklaces. 

Finally, as party favors, I had bought these little fabric purses at a craft store (inexpensive in a pack).  I then ordered these little fairy buttons off of ebay where you could personalize each button with each girl's name.  I then attached the button to the bag, with matching tulle bunched up under the button like a flower.  Inside was a small Fairtopia fairy (found on clearance at McFrugals), a sparkly ring and necklace (Target), a couple of Fairytopia party favors (stamper and glitter pen -e bay), and a chocolate bar wrapped in a Fairytopia wrapper personalized with my daughter's name and "thank you for coming" (wrappers on ebay). 

All in all, it was an amazing party - I wish I could post pictures!  My daughter and her friends all had a magical time!  Thanks to this website for many of the ideas!