Peter Pan - Pin the Clock to the Crock

We recently had peter pan party for my daughter Scarlet. We made our own invitations out of tinkerbell green card stock. I found a picture of Neverland Island on the internet and used that on the cover with the words, "join us in neverland".  Inside was a picture of tinkerbell and the words from the peter pan song, "Think of the happiest things, it's the same as having wings, come fly with us for (child's name)'s birthday party! The magic starts at (time) gateway to neverland is (address) You provide the faith and trust, We'll provide the pixie dust!"  We put a little gold glitter "pixie dust" in the cards and sealed the envelope with a tinkerbell sticker. 

We had the party at the pavilion at our local park and had a barbeque for the adults and games and costumes for the children.  The pavilion was decorated with pink, fuscia, and lime streamers and balloons.  At the very center of the streamers was a tinkerbell that I jig sawed out of 1/4 inch plywood and painted.  On the side of the pavilion that you could see when you pulled up had a sign that said welcome to neverland made out of inside out grocery bags.  Each bag was a different letter in the sign, so you can imagine, it was pretty big!  Below that was a sign that said second star to the right and straight on till morning.  I hung a package of pre-cut craft stars that I spray painted silver from the signs.  We set up a mermaid lagoon with a few yards of blue sparkly fabric as a water fall draped over a corner of the pavilion with an old sheer curtain pooled at the bottom as a lagoon. We used a kiddie pool filled with ice in the lagoon as a beverage cooler. We used a bubble machine to add to the lagoon effect. 

Next to the waterfall I painted a mural of mermaids and palm trees on a big roll of white craft paper ordered from dickblick.com for $20 (I also used the paper to cover the eating tables).  Propped against the mural was an inexpensive dorm room mirror that I painted to look like a mermaid body with out a face.  When the children looked in the mirror they were mermaids, too.  Pirate's cove consisted of a cave and a pirate ship.  The cave was made out of brown packing paper and black streamers that the kids could run through.  Next to this was a mural of peter pan and hook fighting on a cliff over the crocodile. 

The crocodile was made out of felt and later we used him to play pin the clocks on the croc.  I made clocks out of yellow felt circles and used peel and stick Velcro to help them stay in place. The rest of the game is just like pin the tail on the donkey.  The pavilion had round support beams that made a perfect mast for our pirate ship.  My husband cut a refrigerator box into the shape of a ship and we put it around one of the beams.  We then tied a sail and a pirate flag to the pole with rope.  The cake and food tables were decorated with store bought tinkerbell tablecloths, happy birthday banners, and balloons. 

I went to a local bakery for the cake.  It was captain hook with his hand out.  In his hand we put a tinkerbell in a lantern puzzle that we ordered off of ebay.  Over the cake table was a battery operated tinkerbell that hung from the ceiling and actually flew in circles!  When the children arrived we gave them costumes, pirate bandannas, plastic swords, and eye patches for the boys, and fairy wings and wands for the girls.  The costumes were ordered from oriental trading co.  The kids had a blast playing pretend.  Especially when my husband dressed as Peter, and his best friend dressed as captain hook put on a little sword fighting skit.  I made the costumes for Halloween, so we put them to good use again.  Another game we played was called cannon ball bust. 

We blew up a whole bunch of balloons and put a map in each one.  On one of the maps we put a big red X over the cave.  When it was time to play we dumped out all the balloons and let the kids race to see who could find the X.  When they found the map we had them treasure hunt for their party favors. They were hidden in a cardboard chest (also ordered from oriental trading co.) in the pirate cave.  Everyone had a great time. Everyone is already talking about what we should do next year.