Great Fun etc: Perfect Peter Pan Party

Really we all know there's no such thing as Perfect. But when a plan comes together and all your hard work pays off and the sun is shining... it's pretty darn close. (Plus perfect is the only word starting with "P" that I could think of, so we'll go with it.)

The day started out with showers and I was in a tizz. We came so close to postponing it to the rain date (Sunday) but in the end Mr G made the call and said, let's just do it and get it over with...

Then the showers cleared, the sun shone and I went around hanging vines and erecting Teepees singing, "thankyou thankyou thankyou!"
This party just would not have worked on a rainy day. Even a cloudy day would have been a disappointment. Sunshine was indeed, perfect.

The Cast...

I am proud to say that I made all the costumes myself, with my trusty glue gun, a needle, scissors and paintbrush. Mr G was perfect as Captain Hook (the pirate hat with wig was $10 from Geoffs); Miss Fab was sweet as Tink, Dash was Smee (Hook's sidekick) and I cobbled together an Indian outfit in five minutes the night before the party. Not a stitch of sewing required (and somebody thought I'd hired the costume!)

The Setting
We created Neverland in our backyard...

The Lost Boys Hideout under the grapevine, where we ate and the grownups could sit and chat while the kids went mad. The signs were made from bits of broken fence... vines and ivy hanging down around the edges, the table trimmed with sacking and bamboo mats.

Crocodile Creek... created from tarpaulins and sheets, occupied by "Phillip" the awesome giant stuffed croc I found on TradeMe for $10. (Hangman's Tree is the one with the tyre swing)

The Fairy Tree was my favourite piece of magic. I hung strands of mirror tiles from the branches and when the sun shone and the breeze blew, hundreds of lights danced all over the ground and through the leaves. I could sit and watch the fairies dance for hours...

The Red Injun camp, complete with TeePee and fake fire. My teepee is not perfect but what I love about it is that it (a) cost me hardly anything to make (b) was really quick and easy (c) can be easily put away and brought out whenever we feel the need for a pow-wow (made with bamboo chopped from a friend's bush section and fabric from Geoff's Emporium for $2 a metre).

The fort in the corner of our garden became the pirate ship, complete with a plank to walk. Mr G nailed on a mast and hoisted the sail (made from a torn-up old sheet painted with skull and cross bones)... I borrowed the padded mats from kindy for the kids to land on when they jumped. Perfect.

The Food and Drink
Basic party food, tailored to the theme. My favourite cupcake recipe, doubled, and then decorated three ways...

Little pirate faces, crocodiles and blue-swirl with pearls. Then there were my jelly crocs. They were a huge hit too (lemonade jelly set in clear blue cups, with a green lolly crocodile poked in once the jelly set.)

There was popcorn and chippies and pikelets and cocktail sausies and chopped fruit to be eaten with little sword skewers... but the Piece de Resistance were the drinks...

I created the labels myself and stuck them on bottles of good ole Homebrand lemonade and gingerbeer at .90c apiece.

Pirate Punch: "just one sip and you'll be hooked" (gingerbeer)
Fairy Fizz: "Just add happy thoughts and you'll fly away" (lemonade)
Red Injun Juice: "Makes you Brave" (lemonade with a splash of blackcurrent syrup)
Printables will be coming soon...!

The Games
The old party games are always the best, adapted to fit the theme.
Hide'n'seek (when Hook finds you, you walk the plank)
Musical Statues... turned into dancing around the fire to a drumbeat, wearing injun headbands... if Hook sees you move you walk the plank...