The Fairy Birthday

Esme decided on a 'fairy' theme for her birthday party this year.  I have to say I was very grateful that she chose this theme after lots of other alternatives were thrown around (a spider birthday was on the list at one stage.) 

The invitation
Of course, we had to invite all Esme's fairy friends to her birthday so we needed an invitation.  I was a bit particular about what sort of invite I wanted for her as I didn't want things overly 'girly' (although they kind of ended up that way by the end!) I found a template I liked and Chris did some work on photoshop to make it up.

The activities
We had lots of fairy activities planned for the party.  When the kids arrived we had a craft activity for them to do.  Chris had made up some fairy wings using coat hangers and stockings and the kids got to paint them (check out the wings in my other post).  It was a little more messy and time consuming than I had originally bargained on (the kids kind of drifted away in the end and parents were left to finish their wings!)  but still fun. 

Decorating their fairy wings.

After the kids had done their decorating they came inside to play some games.  We had fairy pass the parcel (with glowsticks between the layers and a bead set as the present in the middle)  We then played musical toadstools.  I'd made up some toadstools previously to use for this game.  They are simply felt circles glued together with a hot glue gun.  I'd also planned to play 'fairy, fairy, gnome' (instead of duck, duck, goose) but we'd run out of time by that stage. 

Playing fairy pass the parcel - Gideon wants to help!

Playing musical toadstools after the party.

The food
Along with the regular party fare (sausage rolls, zucchini quiche, spinach and fetta rolls, ham and pineapple pizza - all homemade of course) we also served fairy bread.  For drinks we had special fairy berry punch (aka berry cordial made in the thermomix!)  For dessert we had cake, magic mushrooms,, fairy teacups (kind of like this picture) and fairy wands (fruit cut out in star/heart shapes and threaded onto skewers)  I made up little fairy labels to put with each bit of food. 

Magic mushroom - unfortunately we didn't get photos of the other food

The cake
Esme choose the cake which was a toadstool fairy cake.  The original cake is from the Woman's Weekly cake book but instead of using their icing and colours Chris took a bit of poetic licensing. 

Esme's toadstool cake

The party bag
Instead of the usual party bags I decided to make each child a fairy skirt.  We only had a few kids coming so it wasn't too much work to make them.  Although, saying that, it did take me quite a few hours to get the pattern right and them all sewn (see my other post to find out more).  But the kids all seemed to like them which made it all worthwhile! 

Four fairy skirts ready to go!

All in all, it was a very successful day.  Esme had a great time with her friends and everyone enjoyed all the 'fairy' activities.  Now I can have a break from birthday party planning for another year ;)