Saturday, October 8, 2011

Finding Neverland

"It is frightfully difficult to know much about fairies, and almost the only thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children"
JM Barrie
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Hands down my favorite party to date!

I have always loved the movie "Hook," and "Finding Neverland," so when I saw a party with a Neverland theme, my mind started churning.  I thought that if I could con Libs into thinking it was a Tinker Bell themed party I  could maybe get out of having a Disney princess themed party!
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I had so much fun planning this year.  I poured over pictures of fairies, wild young boys, and pirate ships to get inspired.  Then I checked out JM Barries, Peter Pan from Library and fell in love with his whimsical writing.  I'm hoping she'll look at the pictures one day and say, "Man, I have a cool mom."  Maybe I'll look back and say, "man, I wasted a lot of time planning those parties!" Ha!  Maybe we'll just looked back and remember that we had a great time.  
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Here are the highlights...
All of the children had a costume to wear.  I think that they all tried them on and promplty striped them off.  Except for Libs, she wore her Tinker Bell costume all night.
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"I do believe in fairies...."

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"...I do, I do!"

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"By hook, or by crook..."

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"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."

Last year, part of Libby's favors included making candy bags. I think all the Mom's were angry at me for filling their children with sugar.  This year we gave them a fairy house and they got to stop by the Pixie Dust Station.  I'm pretty sure that the pixie dust made the moms angry too, but it sure was sparkly.
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The green stuff in the cups is Pixie Juice to the children...to the rest of us it is white grape juice, soda water, and green food coloring.

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The bottle said "For best results, mix with faith and trust.  Think happy thoughts."

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I made clever "Neverlandy" tags for the food and drink like "Pirate Pizza" "Smee Tea" "Pixie Juice" and "Lost Boy Smores"....I think I am the only one who knew the signs were there.  I also littered all the tables with quotes from Barries' book...I loved all of them and wish I could paint them on the walls of our house...things like "you know that place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming that is where I'll think of you" and "to love would be an awfully big adventure"....I don't think that anyone noticed these either...but they help me feel more like Neverland.

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Fairy cakes.  Devil's food with cream cheese frosting, and pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

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When the party first started Kev fixed her a drink, and she ran up to me and said, and I quote "Mommy, thank you for my pixie juice at my party!"  Who knew pixie juice  could make a girl so happy...probably one of the best moments of the night.  I love that sound in her voice when she is about to burst she is so excited.
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I'm pretty sure that party planning is a ridiculous use of one's time ...but the end result was lovely.

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She loved every minute of it.  
As for me, it is late and I'm off to join my girl in Neverland...."second star to the right and strait on till morning!"

Just kidding...
You thought I was done posting, but I'm not.
One more thing.
It is about Maggie Bell.
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The other night when I was rocking her before bed,  She laughed in her sleep, then tucked her head into my chest. I wish I knew what she was dreaming about.
I rocked her longer and decided that I need her to always be a baby.

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She turned 9 months old this week.
She almost stole the show at the party.
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She does pixie with natural ease.
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That is all.
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Grace and peace.
xoxo 

8 comments:

Laura said...

Love it! How did the cuppies turn out" I can see why Mags almost stole the show. Green is her color and her and Tink share the name Bell.

Erin said...

a- i love this and you are the most talented mom alive. i want to be you when i grow up. no seriously market this stuff, car. b - maggie bell needs to be marketed too b/c i'd buy about 50 of her - so so so stinkin' cute. c - libby. oh libby i love you and i wish you and hope could play - you are the cutest tink ever and i am so glad you enjoyed your pixie juice. d - i want you to paint all those quotes on canvas for me in your free time so i can litter hope's room with them. e - hope you are having fun with your MIL f - love the last pic of you and kev - you both look smashing and g - i've typed too many letters so love ya, bye.

Jill said...

Favorite party to date EXCEPT it's the first one that cousin Jill had to miss and I'm not happy about it. My little gals looked so precious and I miss them. So cute, Dar. Just like always.

Love you.

Melanie said...

Oh my word, i wish i were more like you! my lost boys would have LOVED to join your party! i thought this year was supposed to be low key and less expensive?? haha! you never cease to amaze me! love you

Amanda said...

I really love the JM Barrie quotes and I am going to use them for something more than just facebook statuses.

The girlies are precious. Unbelievably cute fairies. And such great ideas. I'm glad this was slightly more simple than last year(at least you tried to be more simple...). My girl loves to plan parties, so maybe she can apprentice you some day.

Jan said...

Oh my Carly, what a great party. I think this one is the best so far too! So now along with writing a book and you can do children's birthday parties. I think you will make a fortune! P.S. I too can see why Maggie almost stole the show... what a doll and love her in green.

Julie said...

Amazing, my Dear! Party planning is never a waste of time! :) We moms must get our kicks where we can, and party planning is a huge boost for weeks! Not to mention, your end result was spectacular!! I love love love it all! I only wish we could have been there! Charlie would have loved the pixie juice too! Love you all!!

Teri said...

Breathtaking. Adorable. Amazing. Inspiring. Erin's right. You totally need to market this stuff! Loved every single detail. I wanna be like you when I grow up, Carly.