Peter Pan & Tinkerbell -5yr- Treasure Map Invite

For my daughter's 5 year old birthday party we decided on a Neverland theme to accommodate both boys and girls.  It was a pool party too, so I made sure to let the parents know in the invite. 

INVITATIONS: I used a brownish colored paper that I inked up all the sides to make it look like a treasure map and wrote a poem: Think of the happiest things it's the same as having wings  So if you're not bust Growing Up Come and Play and Dress Up  We'll travel off to Neverland and Celebrate 5 years of Madeleine  You'll probably get soaked by the mermaids in the Lagoon so be sure and bring an extra pair of pantaloons  We'll certainly search for Buried Treasure and be sprinkled with Pixie Dust So please come and celebrate Madeleine's 5th Birthday with us!"  Then I put Tink Stickers on it and stamped a pirate ship with a crocodile.  On the flip side I put a wallet size picture of Madeleine dressed up in her fairy wings and tiara and then had the treasure map dotted line all the way to the "X" where it gave all the party details encouraging the kids to dress up like their favorite Peter Pan characters. 

DECORATIONS:  I borrowed a friend's projector and used it to blow up coloring pages I had printed up from the internet of different locales in Neverland.  I copied them onto poster board and then colored them with colored pencils.  Ex: I put a picture of Peter beckoning the kids out the Nursery window for the "Nursery" with was the Living Room.  I designated each locale as some place in Neverland with the front room being "London" specifically the Darling's Nursery. I also had a stuffed puppy ottoman that I put a bonnet on for Nana! I made the Kitchen "Skull Rock" and the long counter I put all the food on was Smee's Banqueting Table which I covered with a black tablecloth. I put the food in buckets that I labeled with foam letters and the shovels were the serving utensils.  Then we had a ton of little plastic pirates and little cardboard treasure boxes and gold coins and necklaces that we scattered all over the place.  I bought pirate napkins red plates and black napkins.

CAKE:  We put the cake which was amazing and done by my talented step mother on the table on top of the lazy susan.  It was made of chocolate cake shaped into 3 mountains and a lagoon basically an aerial view of Neverland.  She bought 2 ornaments from the Hallmark store one of Capt Hook and the crocodile and one of Tink sitting on mushroom.  (This was a splurge but she regifted them to the kids for Christmas since one of our traditions is to give a special ornament) and put them on the cake.  Then she color copied out of a Peter Pan book the picture of Peter Wendy and The Boys flying to Neverland and cut them out put them on toothpicks and stuck them in the top of the mountains so it looked like they were flying over the island. She strung small marshmallows on string and put on the mountains for clouds.  It was Awesome!

The Den was the Pirate's Cove and I put a poster of Hook in the Crocodile's mouth on the wall and we put a big refrigerator box we decorated as a Pirate Ship in there (I got this free from a furniture store I called them and they told me when their deliveries were).  I found a huge black Pirate's Flag on Amazon for $3 and strung it across the windows.  Then I blew up a bag 50 blue balloons for "water" to surround the pirate ship.  We turned all the couches to face this (it kept the balloons in that room) and it was a great place to keep the younger kids and also anybody who didn't want to swim but could still see the action outside. 

The backyard was divided up: The covered patio I decorated as Tink's Corner with all kinds of Tinkerbell paraphernalia purple streamers and even a Tink doll on the table. The Pool was the Mermaid's Lagoon and we had a big poster of Wendy getting splashed by the mermaids taped to a chair and inside the lagoon were 2 blow up crocodiles (both I found on Amazon).  We set up a tent for the Lost Boys Cave with a poster on the outside of the Peter and the Lost Boys and blew up 50 green balloons and put inside.  Then one corner of the patio we draped white sheets from the top of a post down to resemble a teepee entrance for the Indian Encampment.  Then on the ground we laid down more sheets. 

PARTY SNACKS:  Peg Legs (3 different kinds of chicken wings) Cannon Balls (meatballs in sauce) Goldfish crackers & blue gummy sharks. Then to supplement the themed food I had chips & salsa a fruit tray and a veggie tray.  I put lemonade tea and water in big containers.

UPON ARRIVAL:  We marked the house with 2 stars on the mail box since the invites read 2nd star to the right. 

COSTUMES: I greeted the guests all decked out as "Smee Capt. Hook's right hand man costume which was just a striped blue and white tank belted with a gold belt (I found at Goodwill) and some baggie black capri pants, a bandanna on my head and a big pirate earring and fake tattoos all over my arms.  Most everyone was dressed up (we had 15 kids from 9mo. To 8 years old) but for any who weren't we had a basket of pirate hats and patches or fairy wings and a couple of Peter hats that my mom had made.  Some of the parents actually put on some of the stuff which was very fun! 

My daughter had a beautiful new Tinkerbell costume that my mom had bought for her that she refused to wear, so we asked another little girl if she would wear it and be our Tink.  Thankfully, she agreed.  Madeleine decided to be Tiger Lily and wore a brown shirt that we cut triangles into and we braided her hair in pigtails and a feather headband.  I guess since it was her party…Anyway, I have 3 boys, the 3 year old was Peter Pan, the 2 year old was John and he wore a long white t-shirt, glasses, slippers, a top hat(f/the Party store) and an umbrella, and the baby was Michael.  He wore footed jammies and we had a teddy bear for him. 

ACTIVITIES:  They were invited in to the dining room to put on their own tattoos--pirates for the boys and fairies for the girls (both I found in the Wal Mart check out line by coincidence).  I let the moms help with these while I manned the door.  Then they moved to the Nursery" where I had Peter Pan coloring sheets to color until everyone arrived.  Once everyone was there I sat down and read them the story of Peter Pan (the Disney version) from a huge over sized book I had.  I wanted them to be familiar with the story before we "flew" to Neverland.  Then I moved them into the hall and asked them to think of their Happy Thought and I had one of the little girls dressed as Tinkerbell sprinkle them with Talcum Powder. 

Then we all flew around to the kitchen where I showed them "my food" and then while we were admiring the pirate ship my husband came around the corner dressed up to hilt as Captain Hook.  (Now we're both theatre majors and I guess he was pretty convincing b/c the kids were all pretty scared of him!!)  Then working off a loose script we had worked up he proceeded to chase them all around Neverland.  He tied them all up and questioned them if to find out where Peter Pan was.  He and his pirate crew (which were all my helpers dressed accordingly) dragged them outside where he made them swab the deck.  We had purchased several cheap mops and buckets from the Dollar Store and filled them up with pool water. 

Then Tink came and handed out plastic swords where we had a great sword fight and then she sprinkled everybody with fairy dust again and had them fly to safety to the Lost Boys Cave.  When they got to the Lost Boys Cave (the tent) Hook circled the tent and poked at them with his sword.  Then he chased them to the Indian Encampment where they all got to paint those little wooden treasure boxes I purchased for less than $1 ea. At Michael's.  I used acrylic paint and throw away paintbrushes but half way through they abandoned the brushes and I had them put their hands in the paint and decorate their faces (like little Indians!) This was a great spontaneous thing and we had some of the cutest pictures! 

FAVORS: These little boxes I stuffed with chocolate gold coins Tink stickers and a little bit of pixie dust (which was confetti) and that was their take home gift. I wrote their names on them and put them on the front porch so they wouldn't forget them. Then for the grand finale Hook and Peter had a swashbuckling sword fight where my son pushed Hook into the pool with the 2 crocodiles.  Then all the kids started tick-tocking and laughed heartily while my husband wrestled the big croc.  Then we just ate and played in the pool.  It was a BLAST!  One parent told me he was coming to every party we ever had!! "