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Peter Pan Tinkerbell -5yr- Magic in Neverland

March 2004

Laurel in San Jose, CA USA

Special Mention

For my daughter's fifth birthday we held a Peter Pan/Tinkerbell party. It truly became an over-the-top, all family endeavor! I found tons of ideas on this website, thanks to all of those other parents. My daughter and I had a lot of fun doing the planning together, which was really neat and a good learning experience for her.

We started by hand-making the invitations using a darling graphic I downloaded, showing Tinkerbell flying over a map of Neverland.  It was matted on lavender sparkle paper and attached to the front of a lime green 6" square card. Then,I printed on sparkle vellum: "Think of the happiest things, it's the same as having wings" The Magic Starts at 2:00 on June 8 Gateway to Neverland (our address)You provide the faith and trust, we'll provide the pixie dust! The vellum was fastened into the card with lavender ribbon. The cards were placed in sheer vellum envelopes for mailing.

The day of the party, we divided our yard into three zones based on Neverland. My daughter wore a beautiful Tinkerbell costume from WDW (the park costumes are much nicer than the Disney Store). Upon arrival, each child was offered their choice of a hand-painted indian headband (laced with choice of pink or blue suede, and choice of pink or blue ostrich feathers, ordered from a supplier in Las Vegas!) OR a foam pirate hat (again, with choice of feather colors). The front yard was Indian Camp. I made teepee shaped signs and we had a teepee shaped bounce house.  I also decorated with 6' inflatable totem poles from Stumpz and other totem/tiki decor.  The balloon bouquets were all in green, brown & copper.

The front door porch had a big sign stretched across it stating "Gateway to Neverland, Second Star to the right" and I hung a big star over it. Our side gate was draped in star printed gossamer (also from Stumpz) and had the infamous "Second Star" hanging in front of it, to direct guests around the house. I used PVC pipe to make an angled arch over the gates, from which I stapled the gossamer drapes.  Our side yard was Pirate Cove.  We have a redwood play structure for which my dear husband built a pirate ship rigging.  My daughter and I tea-stained a 6' x 4' muslin sail and lashed it to the rigging using rope and grommets.  A 4' long pirate pennant hung from the top.  I used lots of red & black balloons here, cardboard pirate cutouts and small plastic pirate pennant streamers. We put shells and gold coins in the sand box.

Around the back of the house we created Mermaid Lagoon under our redwood pergola.  I hung long crepe paper streamers in three shades of blue and lots of tropical fish cutouts from the rafters. Water-printed gossamer draped the sides. Balloons were in shades of pale blue and clear to simulate water bubbles. A buffet table held a large clam shell bowl of Pirate's Booty, goldfish crackers and shrimp cocktail for adults. Best of all, in one corner of Mermaid's Lagoon we created Cocktail Cay-we built a small tiki bar and served tropical blender drinks to the adults.  Woohoo! I had two sitters to help me supervise the 20 or so kids, especially in the front yard. The kids just had fun bouncing and playing, until we played limbo. 

We recorded a loop of "Following the Leader" and they got a gold coin for every pass under the bar. They had a blast. Later in the party, Tinkerbell arrived! She was wonderful with the kids and had a steady patter that kept the adults in giggles. We laid tatami mats on the patio for the kids to sit on and Tinkerbell told them the story of Peter Pan. She then ran the kids all over the house on a hunt for Captain Hook's treasure. While they were off in Indian Camp (front yard) I quickly hung a treasure chest pinata under the pergola.  The kids were amazed when they came back, and pulled the strings to get their prizes.

Then Tinkerbell helped my daughter blow out her candles on the fabulous cake.  Our local bakery is wonderful, they did a full replica of the map of Neverland from the invitation(even including our little Cocktail Cay!). Tinkerbell did face painting, we opened presents, sent our guests off with their bags of pinata loot (all toys, balls, jewelry, pencils NO candy) and concluded that a magical time had been had by all! The only bad thing is now our friends have come to expect these elaborate extravaganzas…lots of pressure for #6!

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