Finding Neverland ~ Part 2

In Part I of my daugh­ter’s Find­ing Nev­er­land par­ty post, we began our jour­ney through this mag­i­cal land! As we flew over, we caught a glimpse of the decor of the Dar­ling nurs­ery, includ­ing the food, bev­er­ages and dessert. And now our adven­ture continues…

To aid the chil­dren in imag­in­ing and nav­i­gat­ing through Nev­er Nev­er Land, I hired Ms. Louisa from the fab­u­lous and enchant­i­ng Fairy­tales and Tutus bal­let stu­dio my daugh­ter attends to read Peter Pan and trans­port the kids from the nurs­ery into Nev­er­land. The first step in the trans­for­ma­tion was to dress in cos­tumes! I had fairy wings and tutus avail­able for the girls, as well as pirate gear (scarves, eye patch­es, hooks and inflat­able swords) in trea­sure chests that my father helped to stain.

Ms. Louisa also brought addi­tion­al cos­tumes, such as mer­maids, indi­ans and the lost boys, just to name a few! The chil­dren were free to choose their out­fits, which was so fun and added to the imag­i­na­tive play, as my daugh­ter had three cos­tume changes through­out the par­ty… from a mer­maid to an indi­an and a fairy!

I filled lit­tle jars with pix­ie dust and added a lit­tle tag with a tiny lit­tle bell to sym­bol­ize Tin­ker­bell. The paper I had uti­lized to make the invi­ta­tions also had a gold­en com­pass, so I took advan­tage of the “scraps” and made lit­tle wood­en com­pass­es, which I “Mod-Podged” for all the chil­dren to nav­i­gate around.

After hear­ing the sto­ry, the chil­dren learned to fly by sprin­kling the mag­i­cal dust and jump­ing on a trampoline!

Ms. Louisa then led them through activ­i­ties from sink­ing pirate ships with can­non­balls at Skull Rock, jump­ing over the croc­o­dile, swim­ming through the Mer­maid Lagoon with bub­bles and a pow wow at the Indi­an Camp.

Ms. Louisa’s pres­ence at the par­ty was invalu­able, as it allowed the kids to play all togeth­er and uti­lize their imag­i­na­tion, while the par­ents watched and enjoyed with­out wor­ry. I can­not thank Fairy­tales and Tutus enough for help­ing the chil­dren (and adults) to believe.
I added to the com­bi­na­tion of the nurs­ery and Nev­er­land décor with a book­case and addi­tion­al fur­nish­ings, such as clocks, ships and wood­en blocks I made with Anabelle’s name (from a DIY tuto­r­i­al seen on the Martha Stew­art web­site).

I con­tin­ued to place quotes from the var­i­ous char­ac­ters with the décor in small frames and sil­hou­ettes cut out with the Dis­ney Clas­sic Cri­cut car­tridge attached to can­vas­es – both pur­chased from Michaels. Stuffed ani­mals, such as a croc­o­dile and dog to stand for Nana, soft­ened up the dec­o­ra­tions and pro­vid­ed addi­tion­al props for the children!

Anoth­er hit with the kids was a table I set up at the Mer­maid Lagoon with plas­tic bub­ble bot­tles they could fill up with col­ored sand. I used glass jars found at Joan­n’s with small met­al spouts to facil­i­tate the pour­ing. It pro­vid­ed the chil­dren yet anoth­er activ­i­ty that required lit­tle super­vi­sion and since we were out­side, it less­ened the con­cern of leav­ing a mess!

Since imag­i­na­tion and cos­tumes were already enor­mous com­po­nents of the par­ty, we could not do with­out a pho­to booth! With the help of my par­ents and their pip­ing and sewing tal­ents, we cre­at­ed a back­drop, which I embell­ished with a “Hap­py Birth­day, Anabelle” sign I made. The props were stored in a mini toy box I bought from Hob­by Lob­by my hus­band helped to paint, along with anoth­er frame and a sign to be held up read­ing “believe”. The toys in the Dar­ling nurs­ery ranged from a pirate’s hat to feath­ers to a croc­o­dile hat! I also had anoth­er frame that could be uti­lized in the pho­tos as well.