Party Prep Work...

When it comes to birthday parties for the boys, I know I get little carried away, but I have very good memories of my birthdays as a kid (thanks mom & dad!) and hope they take their birthday memories with them as they grow up. It also gives me a crafty outlet that I think I need sometimes. So while I hope the boys had a GREAT time at their party, I did get a little selfishly distracted in the production of it all...  With that said, I have to share the behind the scenes to our Peter Pan party that we had for J & K this past weekend.

It all started with Josh's love for Peter Pan. While this is Kyle's birthday party too (they are exactly 2 years 1 day apart), he seems to like the things that go along with a Peter Pan theme (crocodiles, pirates, ships...) and he will have plenty of years to pick his own theme. This was the first year that Josh really understood birthday parties and we ran with that.

Step 1 was to get a Peter Pan costume for Josh. Disney knows exactly what they are doing to make their stuff be in high demand as they only feature (thus sell) items for a few of their characters at a time. Peter Pan stuff was NO WHERE to be found at any local stores, luckily I was able to find some small figurines on Ebay that would go great with the wooden ship we got them (more on that later) and also as the cake toppers. Everything else would have to be made, so that is what we did.

I hit the Peter Pan jackpot at the local second hand kids store as I bought a green polo, pointy leather slippers & a belt. We already had green pj bottoms, green felt and a red feather, so I only spent ~$7 + ~1 hour cutting/sewing/assembling it together and voila we got Peter (Joshie) Pan:

Stuff used to make the costume

I think he looks like Peter Pan, don't you?

Next, we needed to make the party favors. I had seen this craft before and thought it would be perfect to hold the party bags closed... its Tick Tock the Crocodile, can't you tell?! This craft turned into a great afternoon activity for Josh and they are very functional as they serve as a magnet clip for art projects on the refrigerator.

Just close pins, paint, foam paper, googly eyes, magnet strips and glue

Kinda cute, huhhh?

You can't have a party, without party hats (well, you CAN and we DID because I forgot to bring them to the party...)!  But any way, we made our own out of the sunday paper, the classic party hat look and that is what John and Michael were wearing while they were play fighting the night they met Peter Pan.  Josh added his special touch of stickers and a feather.  Too bad I forgot them, they would have been cute!

Here are the party bags, we put pirate figures (boys), bracelets & candy rings (girls), sea shells, shark gummies & gold foiled chocolate:

Well, I guess the most important item would be the cake... We made two ships, but one split in transit so we had to make due, luckily the kids had cupcakes to eat:

So there you have it... Next blog will show the party!