Fairies in Neverland - Treasure Chest Craft

Fairies & Pirates in Neverland- 2yrs. old. (Very long so bear with me) For my daughter's 2nd birthday party we decided that a Fairy birthday party would be cute, we also have several boys that would attend so we wanted to include them as well so we decided to go off the Peter Pan theme and add Pirates(For Captain Hook). I discovered this website which really helped me come up with some great ideas.(Thanks to all past submitters).

INVITATIONS: I purchased paper with a rainbow and clouds on it from Wal-Mart and typed up the invitation in cursive font, using some verbage from a previous post and I tweaked it just a bit. It read "Come to where the fairies roam and pirates plunder, Neverland they call their home. We'll jump and play to Celebrate Princess Cierra's 2nd birthday. Dress to impress, perhaps your comfortable fairy best or pirates dress to prevent Captain Hook from making you walk the plank. At the party you will see the enchantments of a fairy. In the beginning if you are sucessful in your hunt, girls will earn their wings and crowns and boys will earn their pirate hats. Fun, fairy food will be had by all. And in the end we'll send you home having played among the friendliest fairy and pirates in this land." I then added the party date, time, etc! I then added fairy and pirate stickers and rolled each up and tied with ribbon. I used empty water bottles(removed labels from bottles), I filled the bottom with sand and added irridescent easter basket grass and placed the scroll inside with enough ribbon so they could pull it out. I then created a label for each bottle addressed as  Fairy Princess______ or Pirate Captain_______. I hand delivered all the bottles. The few I could not hand deliver, I mailed the scroll only. Everyone loved this invitation.

DECORATIONS: I decorated my front door with netting, looks similar to tulle but is less expensive. I also decorated my porch swing with pink tulle and white netting along with butterfly balloons and hanging butterflies. I hung a sign I made with the computer labeled "The Fairy Resting Place". I borrowed a bubble machine which blew bubbles in the front entrance as well and I made a sign with a fairy on it saying,"Welcome to Fairy Princess Cierra's Neverland Birthday Party, where Fairies Roam and Pirates Plunder". The guest then walked into our foyer and there was a sign that read "The Enchanted Forest" We hung light and dark streamers down our arch that they had to walk through, we had a bunch of dark and light green latex helium balloons loose to enchance that forest effect. I had placed little fairy dolls(oriental trading) around the room as well. The dining room was labeled "The birthday celebration Area" This is where I placed the Tinkerbell tablecloth, spread star confetti, a fairy picture frame with a photo of my dauighter dressed as a fairy and I placed a large Tinkerbell punchball from the chandelier and had coordinating streamers go out from four sides with balloons as well. I placed a Happy Birthday sign and some shiny hanging stars with Tinkerbell clipart on them and hung them around this room as well. My nook area was "Cierra's fairy garden" We hung butterfly balloons from that light fixture and tissue flowers(oriental trading)and butterfly ornaments and I spread fake flower petals on the table, a lavender tablecloth and a centerpiece that I made which was a small floral table wreath with stryoform ball that I decorated and printed out a photo in a fairy costume, I cut out the photos and glued it to a large lollopop stick (double sided) and stuck it in the styrofoam ball in the middle of the wreath(very cute). The family room was "Pirate Cove", this was the craft area for the kids so we placed two long tables and chairs and placed pirate tablecloths on those tables and hung pirate banners(dollar store) from the fan to three corners of this room. I also borrowed a toddler table for the little ones. The backyard, we decorated two more tables with one Tinkerbell tablecloth and one plain lavender. We put one table in a large screened tent my dad let us borrow and placed flowers petals , small nylon butterflies and another centerpiece on these tables.

ENTERTAINMENT: I created an agenda for this party. The children came in (some dressed as pirates, others in dresses or leotards, some in regular clothes) I had coloring picture I printed off for them to color including, Tinkerbell, a pirate ship and door hangers. I put out crayons for them to color while they waited for other guests to come. The Adventure Begins...I sat all children in Pirates Cove and welcomed them to Cierra's Neverland Birthday Party. I told them they all would go through some trials to become official pirates and fairies. I then introduced them to my sister who was the fairy godmother in beautiful butterfly wings and a blue dress she looked great. (My daughter dressed in a tinkerbell costume and crown and I dressed in wings a crown, my 8 month old was decked out in a pirate costume, my husband in a pirate bandana)

We explained the first activity was Captain Hooks Treasure Chest, we told the kids that Captain Hook wanted them to decorate a treasure chest to try to confuse Peter Pan into finding the wrong treasure chest, but I told them to not be worried  because since our fairies knew they would tell Tinkerbell and she would let Peter Pan know about the secret. The kids loved decorating the treasure chests. This was their first trial. We then told them it was time to earn their wings and pirate hats. (I made each girl wings out of wire hangers and tulle in various colors and flower crowns, this took me the most time, I did it over three weeks, I also made the younger babies wings out of wire guage and tulle, I decorated all wings with coordinating flowers. They came out so nice.

I purchased the boys pirate hats from the dollar store and wrote their names on it with puffy paint) To earn their wings and crowns, fairies had to rescue one fairy bear , pirates had to find one bag of gold(bubble gum) and then bring it to the fairy godmother. After they did this they received their wings, crown and hats. We then took them to the front to go on a treasure hunt for pixie sticks and gold coins. We also hid a dragon egg, whoever found that got to pick a prize from the treasure chest.(I created the large chest out of the box oriental trading shipped my supplies in and covered it in gold tissue paper and hot glued jewels and kake necklaces to it)

After the kids found their treasures they all passed the trials and became official pirates and fairies. We took their photos with their gear on and they were allowed to go play in the moonwalk that we rented as well as a tunnel adventure for the small children. (The children enjoyed the moonwalks the most they played for hours) We let them play and after an hour we called them in to cut the cake. The cake was a sheet cake decorated in in pastels and my friend made a fairy barbie cake(Her skirt was the cake) it was beautiful.

The kids played some more and those who left received a large gift bag that I decorated with Tinkerbell and Pirate stickers and created a large personalized label with each of their names on it with a photo of my daughter in her fairy costume on it and thanking them for attending. Girls received fairy dust necklaces,bubbles with labels I made with Tinkerbell and Captain Hooks clipart with "Cierra's 2nd Birthday and date" on it, their wings, crowns, candy in wrapped tulle, fairy wands, pixie sticks, gold coins, lollipops and their fairy bears. Boys received pirates hats, gold bubble gum, pixie sticks, gold coins, pirate tatoos, swords, eye patches, personalized bubbles, candy in tulle, lollipops and glow sticks to help them find their way in the dark seas. Babies received butterfly or personalized pirate bibs I made, wings or pirate hats, baby toy(links or toy keys). Adults receive candy wrapped in tulle with a tag thanking them for atending the party.

FOOD: Cuban Sanwiches, Ham and Turkey Sandwiches,BBQ Meatballs, Chips, Nacho Dip, Popcorn Chicken, Cheese and Cracker Platter, Garden Salad, Deviled Eggs, Buffalo Wings, PB&J flower and butterfly sandwiches, Sugar Cookie Wands, Mini Marshmellows (I had typed up cute fairy and pirate them names but did not have time to post them on the buffet area)

OVERALL: The party was a complete success. (17 children and 25 adults) I had other games planned such as, Pass the Fairy(Hot Potato), Friends of Neverland(Like musical chairs) Fairy Sez(Simon Sez), Pin the Star on Cierra's wand(I enlarged a picture of my daughter and cut out personalized stars for each child) but because the moonwalks were so poular we did not get those games. The weather was  beautiful(with the potential Hurricane Ivan coming we were so concerned that we almost cancelled, but it turned out to be a beautiful day, Thanks to God) the kids all had a ball, most did not want to leave, the parents thought it was a great party and thanked me for all the effort that was put into it and most of all our 2yr. Old daughter had the best time. Most children her age would have been cranky from all this activity but she jumped in the moonwalk and tunnels most of the day enjoyed everyone singing happy birthday to her, participated in the treasure hunt and even opened her presents that night and was saying, "AHHH and CUTE" to them all. That made all the work worth it to me and my husband. Thanks again to birhday party ideas.com and all my family and friends who helped make this party a success.

Next party is in January,my son's 1st birthday which will be a cowboy theme and my stepdaughters's 12th birthday which will be a Shopping Spree, Makeover Slumber Party. I can't Wait!!!!!