.: Peter Pan Birthday

Well Corbin turned 4 about...oh... 5 months ago. I cannot believe it has taken me this long to post about his first themed party (I love a themed party). He is a BIG Peter Pan fan and I'm sure he has seen the movie about 100 times. Not to mention the movie "Hook", the play of Peter Pan that his cousin was in, and his favorite music from the movie that has been put into a play list on YouTube. He LOVES it! So naturally, when it came time to start discussing what type of birthday he wanted for the big number 4, it was an obvious choice.

His father and I put a lot of love, time, and thought into making this a magical day for him and his friends. The problem that I ran into is that there is no such thing as a prepackaged Peter Pan birthday. I couldn't run to any local party store and find Peter Pan stuff. Even online it was difficult to find anything at all. So in the end I had convinced my husband that making everything ourselves was the best way to go. Here is what we did and how the big day went!

We wanted his invitations to set the tone for this adventures day so we decided to purchase some corked bottles online to send the invites in. we rolled them up like scrolls and then tied them with some twine. With the addition of a red Peter Pan feather, they were ready to go out. Easy and fun.

The invitation was a map of Neverland. The wording said: "Come to where pirates plunder and fairies roam, a place that all Lost Boys call home. It's Neverland where we'll jump and play as we celebrate Corbin's 4th birthday. All you need is faith and trust, and just a little bit of pixie dust! There will be plenty of food to feed our faces, shadows to catch, and Indian races. Come as your favorite Lost Boy or in your fairy best, perhaps some pirate gear or and Indian headdress. If you can make it, please give us some warning, then follow the second star on the right and straight on 'till morning."

I love how they turned out. And a big thank you to my sister-in-law Debi for making them and bringing my vision to life!!

I thought it would be cute to have stars leading up to the door. I found these shiny gold cardboard stars at party city. I think it was two stars for $2. Sure, I could have made them but, I was making enough stuff for this party, and gold stars were not on my to do list.

I roughly drew an oval onto some plywood and had my husband cut it out and then replicated a sign with craft paint that I saw on a blog post awhile back. I would provide credit along with a link if I remembered where I saw it.

I have always thought these kinds of signs where cool. So when given the chance to make one, I jumped at the opportunity! There are so many great places in Neverland and this let me single them out. I used a bunch of boards from different pallets and cut them out into varying sizes and shapes. For "Cannibal Cove" I used a piece of barn wood from my in-laws backyard. We thought it looked like drift wood that the pirates would have found and made into a sign. Each one was hand painted and stained.

Here's a break down of what you walked into when the door was opened. Immediately over head we had a battery operated Tinker Bell that flew in circles. Her wings flapped and her arms were out stretched. She was probably the size of a Barbie doll. She was really cool and also borrowed so we didn't pay anything to have her at the party.

To the right of the room was a table that we called our "Happy Thoughts Table". On the wall we had quotes of the Darling children's happy thoughts along with a sign that said "Think of the happiest things, it's the same as having wings". On the table were little white slips of paper that the kids would write down (with the help of a parent) their very own happy thought. We tied their slip of paper to a balloon and when they left the party, they let go of it and watched their happy thought "Fly" away.

Tink watched over the party from Captain Hook's lantern.

I bought a couple green table cloth's from Party City but I saw the exact same ones at the Dollar Store. I used some craft paper to cut out feathers and then strung them together with twine and used it like a garland along the front of the tables. We had a lot of fun with the food. The water bottles had custom labels. There were four different labels you could get. There was a hook, a Peter Pan silhouette, Tinkerbell, and the number 4. They all said "Corbin's turning 4" on them. There were Pixie stix labeled as "Pixie Dust", Bubba's doughnut holes "Captain Hook's cannonballs", trail mix "Mermaid mix", Snickerdoodles "Smee's Snickerdoodles", Chocolate dipped pretzel rods "Tinks Fairy wands". A few starfish were placed on the table.

Then there were mini Sprite bottles with attached red feathers and custom labels. I hot glued the red feathers (from Micheals) onto the caps. The labels had a silhouette of Princess Tiger Lilly on them. Vegetable tray was "Crocodile Crunch", Layered fruit salad was "Pan's Favorite Fruit Salad", Lay's potato chip's "Doubloons", grape skewers "Lost Boy Swords", Waffle cones "Tiger Lilly Tee-Pee's". The cake was white fondant with green buttercream icing and accents. On top, in black, was Peter Pan's silhouette and the saying "You can fly".

All of the characters on the table were drawn onto plywood. My husband carefully cut them out, and I hand painted all of them. This took so many hours! Each one took anywhere between an hour to 3 hours to paint.

Here is one up close.

The birthday banner and Pan hats were designed by my sister-in-law.

I loved the wall covered in streamers. I used two different shades of green. The yellow flower was purchased at Party City and came as a set of three. This thing was so hard to make, that we decided one was enough.

We pushed our table into the corner and turned it into the favor table. The Green buckets were for each kid to take home all of their prizes. I bought them all from the Dollar store. They each had a label on it that said "Lost Boys Loot" "Thank you for coming to Corbin's 4th birthday". Below the table were two silver buckets. One had wooden swords that the hubby made, for the boys. The other had Wooden fairy wands, that my husband made, for the girls.

In the backyard we had plenty for the kids to do. Out of some scrap wood in our shop I created a ball toss game. We called it "Sink the Jolly Roger".

We have a long planter box in our backyard that we dug down a little then filled it with a tarp and some water. We made a plank and had the kids cross it. We even added an alligator head to the water and a sign that said "Crocodile Creek".

We also made Captain Hook's Ring Toss. We made hooks out of wood and painted them, then attached them through the back with a screw. With chalk we drew lines on the ground leading away from the game. Each line was labeled something different. The closest line said "Cod fish", the next one back said "smee", then "Mermaid", "Tink", "Lost Boy", and lastly "Peter Pan". The goal was to be able to through it successfully from the furthest line.

Hangman's tree had the Pinata hanging from it. I found this cute Pirate ship at Party City for $14.

We created a tee pee for the kids to play in out of some wood and an old sheet. On the floor of the tee pee we laid down a faux fur blanket.

I must say that Corbin had some of the cutest guest's at his party! We had many fairies and pirates in attendance.

At "Pixie Hallow" the kids painted their swords and fairy wands.

While they ate lunch, we watched Peter Pan.

Following lunch we all went on a scavenger hunt. All of the kids lined up at the door and my husband (dressed as a pirate) lead the troops on an adventure. I read aloud the clues. It was a rhyme that we had written that was very pirate-y. I don't know what happened to it otherwise I would share it with you. The first clue lead them down to the end of the driveway where there was a pile of green and yellow (dollar store) shovels. The next clue took them to the grassy park area at the end of the street where they had to find a hidden map that showed where the treasure was buried. The final clue said that Hook (my husband) had the key to the treasure chest and that they had to fight him to get it. As my husband ran down the street, the mob of kids followed waving their swords in the air! It was quite the spectical. They sword fought him in the driveway until Hook gave up the key. Then the children ran to Hangman's Tree where the treasure was buried and dug it up.

This is the map that I made for the scavenger hunt. I used a tan sheet of scrapbook paper. With some hot water and coffee grounds I made a paste and rubbed it into the paper leaving more in some area's that I wanted darker. Then I let it dry with the coffee grounds on it. Once it was dry I brushed off the coffee and drew my map of Neverland. I went back over the drawing with paint and then watered down the paint and went back in to adding shadows and detail. when that was dry I crumpled it up and then flattened it back out to give it a worn look. It now resides on my son's bedroom wall.

Look at how excited and happy he is!

My husband had built a pirate chest and we filled it with candy, necklaces, rings, and bubbles, then buried it in the backyard the morning of the party. The kids couldn't believe their eyes when they pulled this sucker out of the ground! I think every hand went into the pirate chest at the same time!

Then it was time for more candy. Because Corbin had around 25 kids at his party, we had him break the pinata and then invited the kids to come and get the candy.