Charlotte Annie's Fairy Princesses & Pirates 5th birthday party! (March 2021)

 Last year, we wound up using a Facebook Event page to invite family and friends to Charlotte's 5th birthday party rather than traditional paper-based invitations. Below is the image along with the narrative from that event page.

Our little princess is turning five!

Please join us for a small gathering of pirates and fairy princesses for a pizza lunch & birthday cake at Charlotte's grandparents' castle I mean house. We might even find treasure while there! No gifts needed but a sense of adventure & fun is appreciated! Girls are free to dress up as fairy princesses and boys can come as pirates ready to hunt for gold! 

 As you can probably gather from the above description, there were fun and games to go along with the pizza and cake! Charlotte donned her fairy wings, wore a princess crown, and enjoyed playing with her friends who came dressed as princesses or pirates! Once everyone had arrived, we started the interactive activities in the large front living room. Charlotte's friends were amazed by her Daddy's pirate voice as he read the clues aloud that previewed or hinted at the upcoming activity they were about to engage in and do.

In the days leading up to the party, it was fun finding pockets of time to try to get the birthday treats ready in advance. Here are some of the ingredients still in the grocery bags.

 

The kitchen smelled so good as the cupcakes baked!

Charlotte enjoyed helping to make the "sand" to sprinkle on the cupcakes!

Treasure Chest Cupcakes for the pirates!

Family Birthday Cake for the love of our lives!

These were the favor bags for the boys and girls who would soon arrive to the Princess Fairies & Pirates Party!

This was the crown decorating station in the lower level of my in-laws' home!

As the Princess Fairies and Pirates moved around the house, there were several stations in which they had to solve riddles to help "rescue" the princess. This station involved building a garden among the animals with the flowers in the bin to the left in the above picture.

Do you spy the hiding place of the Princess Bear? :)

Here is a pirate who needed some help finding his clothes!

This station involved building or constructing castles using castle blocks and/or magnetiles and/or dominos! It was fun to watch the children work independently or collaboratively in building their structures!

The children were getting closer and closer at this point to finding the princess. First, they had to engage in this matching and sorting activity of playing Memory with the Princesses and in putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Then, it was time to go to the ball and to put the princesses into the scene with the removable princess stickers!

All throughout the house clothing items were strategically placed among the various stations that were to go on the Princess Bear or the Pirate Boy.

Do you spy the treasure chest with the gemstones inside it?!

More hidden treasures - in plain sight!

At the conclusion of the scavenger hunt stations, and once the princess was rescued, it was time to eat!!

Getting ready to start with the Daddy Pirate giving the children clues!

Cousin Clark was a trooper and tried to get the stubborn birthday girl in the group photo at the conclusion of the castle building! Oh, Charlotte!

After all their hard work scavenging, the kiddos enjoyed their pizza lunch and birthday treats!

Counting up the gemstones and spoils from their treasure hunt!

Here is the map followed by the clues that helped us to be successful on our quest!

Later that evening, once the children had departed, we had the family birthday party for our little fairy princess!

Below, are some other pictures from the birthday party...it seems these images uploaded out of order. What a full day of adventure and celebrating!!

X marks the spot of where her birthday presents were on her actual birthday the day after the birthday party at Grandma and Pa's house!

This paint your own ceramic art studio had just opened shortly before Charlotte's birthday. The owner kindly opened up just for Charlotte on her birthday afternoon. What a fun and creative way to celebrate our little artist!

Charlotte's fifth year got off to a magical start!!