Day 23: A Perfectly Wonderful Peter Pan Party

This weekend we did a fun at home Peter Pan themed party for my first grader, Ben. Ben loved Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and he's seen Hook, but he'd never actually seen the original Disney Peter Pan movie when he requested this party theme. I hit Pinterest for some inspiration and got to crafting.

First step was to get out an invite ASAP. I did a blog post on how I made these simple panel cards here.

My sister came up from California and she helped me shop for and craft all the goodies and decorations. We made these Peter Pan hats for all the "lost boys" at the party. It was so simple - just one seam to sew using these instructions. They were probably the easiest project we made!

Less easy and way more time consuming was making 6 pairs of fairy wings for the little girls in attendance. I read a bunch of pins on it, then I figured we'd just wing it. I bought a few yards of green tulle, some inexpensive wire hangers, and a bunch of flowers from the dollar store. Heidi shaped the wing shapes out of two hangers, using duct tape to secure the two sings in the center. I used hot glue to stretch the tulle across the wings and gather it to the center - it took about a half yard per set of wings. Heidi wrapped the tulle center with duct tape, then we attached stretchy headbands we'd found in a six pack at the Dollar tree to hold on the wings with hot glue and more duct tape. We hot glued on the flower centers and added lots of glitter gel. When we were done the wings were sturdy and the fairies loved them! We had one extra set and Max has been wearing his "special wings" around the house with his Batman feety jammies. One lesson I learned making these...hot glue is HOT! 

We organized a few games, using the Neverland map from the invite to lead the groups of kids through the game stations. In Skull Rock we set up a treasure dig, where the kids donned pirate eye patches and dug for jewels and mardi gras necklaces.  At the Mermaid Lagoon we had them walk the plank (balance beam). In Cannibal Cove we had the kiddos explode Hook's cannonball stash (black balloons). We also had a Crocodile Creek where the kids played with this Inflatable Alligator Ring Toss Game. My boys are still playing with this - too much fun. Indian Camp was where we had them congregate around a paper campfire for instructions and then again for cupcakes and gifts. We used kitchen towels as "woven mats" to help the kids spread out in the Indian camp...as an added bonus now I've got new kitchen towels! At the end of the party we sent all the lost boys and fairies home with Treasure Chest Treat Boxes filled with pirate booty and space to take home their treasure that they dug up at Skull Rock and the gold doubloons they earned at each game station.

We even found a Tink doll to decorate the cake table, tucked into her house filled with leftover tulle and flowers from the wings. We gave her to a sweet little neighbor girl to take home at the end of the party.

This is my sweet birthday boy, Ben, my happy thought, who was a whirlwind of activity and so hard to get a picture of the whole party. He's wearing his Peter Pan hat and a size small men's shirt that I cut into a peter pan tunic and tied with some white rope. We had originally planned all of this to happen outdoors, but it rained, so we did everything in the small main level of our house...with over a dozen kids...it was quite the noisy band of Neverlanders. Ben just loved his party and everyone went home happy. 

Until next time, Think Happy Thoughts, Stampin' Friends!