Fairy Garden 5yr - Special Flower Fairies

Fairy Party (Garden Fairy) - 5th birthday 2 1/2 hour party: 

Invitation:  I bought paper that had flower fairies around the boarder, and wrote (some from this site and some I made up):  "Far, far away in a magical place, sits a small garden fairy, her name Princess Grace.  She sits and she waits in the warm summer sun.  Please say you'll join her for food, games and fun.  With fairy wings, fairy dust and flowers galore.  Butterflies, toadstools and so much more.  June 23rd this magical day.  Dress in your fairy best, garden fairies come and play!" 

Decorations: Because it was an outdoor party, I bought oversized paper butterflies in various colors, and large garden flowers stakes on sale from our craft store.  I hung the oversized butterflies around the deck and in the trees and chose a "picture" site where I placed the oversized garden stakes and oversized butterflies.  In the house, I placed sunflower vines around the archways and hung smaller butterflies throughout.  Our table was decorated with a custom cake of a garden fairy surrounded by flowers, butterflies, and a pond with fish and lily pads.  Our fairy paperware was purchased from Birthday Express and I sprinkled silk flower petals around the table.   

Prior to the party:  We decided each girl would become a special flower fairy.  We made headbands for each girl by wrapping ribbon around plastic headbands and hot gluing a special type of flower on each (i.e. rose, pansey, forget me not, sunflower, buttercup, etc.)  We also ordered wings from Birthday Express and spray painted each wing with beautiful colors to correspond with their flower.  They looked awesome!  

We made name tags with each of the flower names (so we could call each girl by their "flower name")  We also decided to have a fairy scavenger hunt.  For this, we painted 3 fairies per guest using clothes pins for each type of flower fairy and used painted coffee filters for her wings. For our musical lily pads game, I cut out lily pads from green poster board paper.  For our fairy dance, we painted dowels green and used foam flowers glued together with strings of silver ribbon hanging from the flowers to twirl as wands during the dance.  Each girl arrived in a resemblence of a fairy costume (i.e. old ballet outfit, or dress-up clothes). 

At the beginning of the party, I had downloaded several pictures of fairies off the internet for them to color until everyone had arrived.  Then, we all went inside and I read a book about Flower Princesses.  I also told them stories about how fairies liked to be mischeivious (hiding things, stealing sugar, etc.), and about fairy dances (ring dances), where fairies live, fairies riding on dragonflies, etc. (all info. I read about on the internet).  I could not believe how much they enjoyed this! It really got their imaginations running. I told them that my daughter was the queen of the flower fairies today and she would be designating them each a certain type of flower. 

However, they must EARN their wings to become real flower fairies.   My daughter then gave each girl their flower headband and a bag decorated with fairy stickers with their name on it to be used during the fairy scavenger hunt.   While I was reading the story…my little helper was hiding the clothespin fairies in the back yard for our scavenger hunt.   Each girl was to find her 3 special fairies.  Whomever found the "glitter" fairy won a prize.   

Next, we played "musical lily pads" or ring dance.  They used the flower wands we made to twirl around while dancing around the lily pads.   As each girl got out…she "earned" her wings.   I had set up a special table full of body glitter, glitter nail polish, and a mirror while the girls had their scavenger hunt.  As each girl got her wings, our helper treated them to some body glitter and a polish.  Once each girl was finished, they sat down to make "fairy dust" to sprinkle in their garden at night to attract the fairies.  (I had two 12 year old helpers to do the games and crafts). 

I used sugar and bought several different colors of glitter that the girls could use to make fairy dust.  I had prepared baggies with their names on it ahead of time, and cut metallic ribbon to tie the baggies.  "One scoop of sugar and 4 sprinkles of glitter = fairy dust"  Next, we had all of the girls gather for a picture at our designated photo site (with the trees, butterflies and flower stakes).  We took digital group photos of all the girls.   

Finally, it was time for cake. 

After cake, the girls were brought back outside for one final craft….to make a fairy house for their fairies to sleep in.  For this, I bought small flower pots, outdoor paints and a butterfly for each girl to glue to the top of the pot.  The girls painted their "fairy houses" and were told that they could cut an old sock for a sleeping bag and use a cotton ball for a pillow. (I had a fairy stories CD that I played while they were making their craft)  They were to place the fairy house in the garden that night and sprinkle their fairy dust and most certainly a real garden fairy would show up.     Last….we opened presents.

Gift bags included their wings, headband, flower wands, ring pops, stickers, etc. We limited their gift bag item to only the ring pops and stickers since we had spent most of our $$ on each girls wings, headband, etc.  

Our thank you cards included a group photo of the girls in their wings and headbands and was addressed "Dear Rose Fairy" (pansey fairy, etc.) I had many parents tell me that their girls could not stop talking about fairies for days!  My daughter still thinks they fairy stole my keys when I lose them! 

This was a wonderful party…and something really different.