Tinkerbell Party 2yr - Decorate your Wings

I decided on a Tinkerbell theme for my daughter Lucia's 2nd birthday party because she's a little pixie like Tink.  I had about 20 kids coming to the party ranging in age from 2-6, and about half of them were boys, so it wasn't a stretch to include some pirate-themed stuff and other aspects of Peter Pan.  I like details so this is going to be long, but hopefully well worth the read, so please bear with me :) 

Invitations:  I designed my own invitations.  I bought purple and lime green cardstock (Tinkerbell colors), irridescent white ribbon, irridescent white glitter, and a Tinkerbell punch.  Using a paper cutter, I cut the purple cardstock into 5" x 7" pieces, and I cut the green cardstock into smaller 3.5" x 5.5" pieces. I sent all the green pieces of cardstock through my printer where the text of the invitation was printed with an airy cursive font.  I then set the green piece of paper on top of the purple piece so that there was a purple border all around the green piece.  Using a regular hole punch I punched 2 holes approx 3/4" apart about 1.5" down from the top of the purple paper, and I fastened the two pieces of paper together with a bow made from the irridescent ribbon. 

I used the Tinkerbell punch and plain white paper to make a bunch of Tink cutouts and I dipped them in glue and glitter on one side and when dry, I glued about 5 of them onto the invitation. By doing this I ended up with little flecks of glitter all over the inviation which gave it an overall sparkly look.  Overall, these were kind of time consuming to do, but I enjoy crafting and I like to be unique.  You can get everything you need at Michael's except the Tinkerbell punch which I was only able to find on eBay.  The invitations read:  Our Tinkerbell is Turning Two So We're Having a Party for Little Lucy Loo.  Come to Where the Pirates Plunder & the Fairies Roam; The Gateway to Neverland is Lucia's Home.  Fly on Over on February Four At 2 pm for Fun and More.  Just Think of the Happiest Things, It's the Same as Having Wings. When You Enter Neverland You Will Turn Into A Fairy, a Pirate Whole New You! All It Takes is Your Faith and Trust We'll Supply the Pixie Dust. RSVP by January Twenty-One To Say Whether or Not You Will Come.  123-456-7890 

Decorations: I made an enormous banner that read "Neverland" and strung it across the opening of our front door.  Each letter was on a 8.5 x 11 laminated sheet of paper, and all the papers were strung together.  Just above the banner to the right, I hung two big silver stars (in keeping with the "second star to the right" idea...).  On my front door, I taped two smaller signs:  the one was a picture of Tinkerbell with my daughter's face superimposed on it and it said "It's All About Me...Today!".  The second one simply said "Think Lucia" (like "Think Tink").  These 2 signs were recurring throughout my house.  I even taped several back to back and strung them up as mobiles in the kitchen area along with lime green, purple, and pink streamers,and large silver stars.  The inside of my house was modeled after Neverland. 

The foyer was transformed into Cannibal Cove.  I hung tons of green streamers hanging straight down from the ceiling and tons of green balloons suspended from the ceiling to creat a jungle-like effect.  There was no way to pass through there without having to push aside balloons and streamers.  The kids loved playing in this area, running through and letting the balloons hit them.  At the entrance to this, I made a big sign that read "Cannibal Cove".  I did something similar but with blue balloons and streamers, in the hallway leading to our powder room.  I hung a sign there that read "Mermaid Lagoon".

On the door leading to our lower level, I hung a skeleton, and a sign that read "Skull Island" and another sign that read "Pirates Aplenty...Enter at Your Own Risk".  All the boys thought the skeleton was very cool!  At the entrance to our kitchen I hung a banner that read "Tink's Garden".  In the kitchen, there were clusters of pink, lime green, and purple balloons everywhere, along with the streamers and stars and mobiles of Tink/Lucia that I mentioned earlier.  I had Tinkerbell tablecloths and the Tinkerbell plates/cups/napkins that are in stores everywhere.  My 5 year old daughter had been very excited to make Tinkerbell confetti using my Tink craft punch and she sprinkled that on all the tables.  The whole place looked amazing.

Costumes: Lucia obviously was Tinkerbell complete with the outfit and slippers from Disney store.  My 4 year old son wore his Captain Hook costume, and my 5 year old daughter wore a blue nightgown, hair bow, and slippers, and became Wendy.    When the kids Arrived: All the girls were transformed into Fairies, and the boys were transformed into Pirates.  The boys were easy, I bought each a red kerchief, eye patch, and clip-on gold hoop earring.  It cost about 80 cents/child.  The girls required some more imagination...I found fairy skirts (ribbon tutus) on eBay that were multi-shades of green with little Tinkerbell appliques as fringe.  They cost about $2.50/tutu.  In retrospect, I probably could have made them for less but it was just easier this way. 

I did, however, make each of the girls a set of wings, using wire coat hangers, light green knee hi stockings that I found at Wal Mart, tape, and ribbon.  If anyone is wondering how…bend each hanger into the shape of a wing.  Slip one knee high over each hanger and stretch it so that the hanger is completely covered…fasten two hangers together (I used duct tape…can use wire, whatever works), use a pretty wide green ribbon to cover the area where the hangers are fastened together using a hot glue gun to hold the robbon in place.  Use curly ribbon to make wide enough hoops to attach the wings onto your little girls shoulders.  Now, I didn't do this, but as an added party activity you can have the girls decorate their wings with glitter, pom-poms, sequins, whatever.  The wings were a huge success and many people seemed very impressed that they were home-made.  Making them saved me a lot of money as these are not cheap.  They do have wings in the dollar store, but mine came out much nicer.  Anyway, as each girl came in, she was transformed into a fairy by being given a tutu, wings, and dabs of "pixie dust" (glitter and aloe vera gel) on her face.   

Games/Activities: Given the large amount of kids of various age groups, I kept things simple.  I had 4 activities:
1.  Had the Peter Pan movie playing in our lower level.  This kept most of the kids occupied for a while.

2.  Played Freeze-Dance using music from Peter Pan.  Mostly the girls were interested in this and kept asking for it over and over throughout the party.

3.  Played Musical Pillows (like Musical Chairs) using music from Peter Pan but instead of having a child be out of the game for not having a pillow to sit on, the object was everyone had to crowd onto the pillows that were remaining.  This was a cool idea because none of the kids felt left out of the game and I had a huge group of hysterically giggling kids all sitting on top of one another on 1 pillow.  It made for a good picture opportunity!

4.  Scavenger Hunt.  Each kid had to bring me something from around the house that I asked for (toilet paper, fork, piece of paper, ball, etc) and once I had them all, Captain Hook (my son) told everyone where he had hid his treasure (party favors).  All of the kids had pirate nicknames on their bags of loot--like Peg-Leg Leo, or One-Eyed Alex.  They thought the names were funny.   

Party Favors: The kids got their party favors during the scavenger hunt.  The girls got pens with green maribou feather toppers, bracelets, and rings.  The boys got pirate pencils, pirate tattoos, and pirate flags.  All the kids got a home-made book of Tink/Peter Pan coloring pages.  (I find that these go over very well.) 

Food: No themed menu, just a lot of delicious choices.  We did have a custom-made Tinkerbell cake however. 

That's about it--I hope these ideas help someone else plan a special Tinkerbell party for their little one!!  It was truly a magical day--the kids acted like they were truly transported to Neverland, and I received many compliments from the parents.  Weeks later, we are still getting comments from neighbors who saw my outdoor decorations and thought they were cute.