Tinkerbell & Pirates 6yr - Decorate Cookies

( 6yr. Old girl birthday ) Theme _ Tinkerbell and Pirates  First the invites were done with some help from your website.  I made a cute fairy poem and put vellum paper over it and tied the top with a bow for the girls.  Invite said, Fairies, fairies did you hear?  Mandy's birthday is coming near. I found the idea on this website.  It ended with wear your fairy best and we'll see you fairy soon.  For the boys I put it on resume paper and burned the edges to look like an old treasure map.  I invited the boys by using all pirate terms. 

I also asked the kids to dress up appropriately. For the party when guests arrived I let them jump in the jumper while I called the girls out to do face painting.  Great idea\*\*\* instead of hand painting the picture, buy a few small rubber stamps ( butterfly, flower, crown etc. )  Paint the stamp and gently put in on the child's face.  It comes out perfectly!!!  Add some glitter from a glitter pen and it looks like a professional.  For the boys I did gotees and mustaches. 

Each guest was also given items to wear.  Girls received fairy wings from the dollar store right after Halloween is a good time to stock up. I also made each girl an inexpensive crown.  Star garland from the local craft store and hot glued ribbon from my craft box to the back. The boys received a complete pirate kit, earring, sword, eye patch and hook also from the dollar store.

Here's another great tip:  I always put a sign out sheet at each party I hold.  That way parents don't feel obligated to stay if they choose to leave.  They feel safe bacause they have signed their child in and included their cell phone number in case we need to get in touch with them.  

I decided the best way to handle so many guests was to do rotations or centers kind of like they do in school.  Since I'm a school teacher it worked out great.  There were 15 minutes at each center, 4 centers and about 4-5 guests at each one.  One rotation was to decorate a cookie, another was musical chairs to Peter Pan music. 

Next was crush the " cannon ball" black balloons pre filled by me with very small toys, and time in the jumpy.  Lastly was pin the X on the treasure map.  If the children finished a center early I had pre made packets at another table for them to color.  Girls got fairy packets and boys got pirate one.  Most of the printable pages came from abcteach.com.

After the centers we had lunch ( easy hotdogs ).  Then we played pass the treasure chest.  This is a great game because everyone is a winner!  They pass a treasure chest filled with lots of goodies bought at the dollar store.  When the music stops the person holding the chest picks out a prize.  If the music stops and you already had a prize pass it to the closest person who hasn't received one yet.

Next we opened presents…this idea really saved me!!!  I put pre cut stars from construction paper taped to popsicle sticks and put them in a heart bucket.  My daughter sat in the big chair with tulle hung over it like a canopy and all the children sat on the carpet in front of her.  She pulled out a popsicle stick and whoever's name was on the star got up and gave her their present.  The kids sat so nicely and quietly waiting their turn. 

No more fighting over who gets to give the birthday girl their present and crowding her!!!  Lastly serving the birtday cake..  I was concerned over how to do this cake and I found out that they can take a sheet cake and put 2 themes on it.  Half of it was a tinerbell cake all done in girl colors and the other half was capt'n hook and peter pan done in boy colors.  

Decorations:  I created a ship to go in the hallway to the bathroom and it served as the perfect backdrop for individual pictures to put with their thank you cards.  Also I got paper bags from the local grocery store and pre wrote their names on them.  They knew just where to go when the won a game and got a prize and everything was easy to find at the end of the party.  

Cute food ideas for this theme:  for girls,( wands ) pretzel rods covered in chocolate and rolled in multi colored sprinkles wrapped in celephane.  Heart or star shaped rice krispy treats put on a skewer or dowel with sprinkles on that. 

For boys:  Chocolate donut holes, call them cannonballs.  The parents loved the party and having the centers made it very manageable and organized.  Just make sure you have parent help to man the centers.  Good luck and enjoy!!!!