Tinker Bell Birthday Party

 

This weekend we celebrated Sophie’s 3rd birthday.  It became obvious to me a few months ago that Sophie’s obsession with Tinker Bell would provide the perfect theme for this party.  Our colors were Lime and Lavender to match just about every Tinker Bell item Sophie owns.   It was so much fun to plan!

We had the challenge of turning our church fellowship room into “Pixie Hollow”.  First let me show you “the backdrop”.  I had originally dreamt up something different, but it wasn’t going to work out.  My sister-in-law, Leigh, whipped this backdrop up the morning of the party to give a nice scene for opening presents.  Those are “fairy lights” aka white Christmas lights leftover from our wedding (they are used elsewhere too), a blue sheet and purple and green tulle tied with ribbon.  Leigh used thumbtacks to hold everything up.  This turned out so much nicer than what I had planned.

Hanging above is a “wreath-a-lier” that I made.  It is a Styrofoam wreath form (14”) with crepe paper roses hot glued all over and hung with ivory ribbon.  Don’t ask me how many roses! This was definitely a labor of love.  I wish you could all see it in person as these pictures do not do it justice.  Good news is that I can use it to decorate for spring, so we will get a lot of miles out of this thing.

To use as table centerpieces, I bought six of these little $1 birdhouses from Jo-Ann’s Fabric.  Then I painted them brown and hot glued green Spanish Moss, also from Jo-Ann’s, to the roofs.  On three of them I made “Fairies Welcome” signs made from stuff from my yard.  The other three I left blank.  And that’s scrapbook paper they are sitting on. Now that the party is over, I’m using the scrapbook paper to make a mini Birthday Party scrapbook using a small photo album. The kids got to take the birdhouses home along with their goodie bags.  The girls got the ones with signs and the boys got the plain ones to be “bug houses.”  I meant to stick some flowers in the moss, but left them at home.  Oh, well.

Speaking of goodie bags, here they are.  They are just brown lunch sacks that have Tinker Bell and friends printed on the front.  I can’t remember where these were bought, but I’ve seen them all over.  Behind them are more fairy lights with flowers attached. These were made by dying white coffee filters in water and food coloring.  After drying, I stacked four filters of the same color and pinched them in the middle and tied a twist tie around the pinch.  Then I fluffed the flowers and attached them to the lights with their twist ties.  It’s super easy!

The kids made necklaces with “Fairy Treasure”. 

The food table was a challenge. As you can see there is a plain brick wall behind the table.  Leigh and I hung streamers and white paper lanterns over the table.  More fairy lights grace the table behind the food.  Aside from the food I’m about to mention, we also had a fruit and veggie tray, dip and chips, and Starburst Jelly beans, which just happen to be the best jelly beans to be found on this Earth, just sayin’.

We served lemonade out of this cute dispenser bought for 6 bucks at Walmart.  It has a lovely pattern on it too, which worked well with the theme.  Behind it are the napkins I fanned into a wing pattern, don’t know if anyone noticed but it thought I was clever.  Punch cups for the adults and Tinker Bell cups and straws for the kids.  Leftover lanterns rest in a wire basket.

Our choice of cookies were Oreos, to cater to a child with nut and egg allergies, and these cute flower shaped sugar cookies made using Nigella’s recipe and Wilton’s Royal Icing in Lavender to match our theme.

I wanted to serve Tinker Bell inspired cupcakes, so I sketched a few ideas and settled on these two.  In the yellow baking cups (both ruffled baking cups made by Wilton) are Yellow Cake (from a box because I haven’t found my perfect yellow cake recipe yet).  The purple cups hold the most amazing chocolate cake ever (from Pioneer Woman).  Both are toped with That’s The Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had.  The chocolate cupcakes are iced to look like grass with purple wildflowers.  The yellow cupcakes just scream ‘Tink’ to me.  On top of the green swirl rests a pearlescent gumball from Party City.  It’s pretty and tastes good too!

I brought Sophie’s Tinker Bell costume which she had to wear for singing to her, blowing out the candles and opening presents. 

We’re blessed to have a playground at the church building, so the kids got to play.  I think they had a good time.

Sophie had a great birthday party, she’s still talking about it.  Now we just have to sit back and wait for a fairy to take up residence in our little fairy house. “Come on Tink, we’ll even share our jelly beans!”

Linked to Made It On Monday, Bear Rabbit Bear and Muffin Monday.