When Ginger asked for a Neverland party for her & Pearl’s last birthday, I thought “There is no way I can pull this off.” I’m looking at Pinterest and seeing parties I’d die for and it’s probably just me, but I can’t justify selling our TV’s, computers & cars for a party. Sooooooooooo…. yeah. But as we dreamed and brainstormed, we realized there was a lot we could do. And the girls were all eager to help paint, stain, bake, etc! It ended up being one of our favorite parties yet! Hope some of these ideas are helpful to anyone planning Peter Pan on a Budget!
First off, the INVITES. I’m pretty much all digital now. Partially to save on stamps, but moreso it’s just so much easier to do an invite on picmonkey or pages, do a little photo editing & text to my friends.
We went pretty old school with the invites with all the original classic Peter Pan characters.
Next off- GAMES! We did Walk the Plank, Hook Toss and Feed the Croc. I had old colored stain & paint, a game of bags (aka: corn hole), a piece of cardboard and some plywood… so it just cost me the board from Home Depot for the plank and the hooks & rings and some blue balloons (for pretend water) from amazon.
The hit of the party: Walk the Plank game. I used some very short child’s chairs to keep it low to the ground so the kids wouldn’t hurt themselves.My husband was a champ as Captain hook. We also downloaded the soundtrack from Jake & the Neverland Pirates while they were playing, which was a big hit as well.Kids LOVED the Hook Toss!The Feed the Croc beanbag game was another great game for kids to jump in on. Especially since it cost me NOTHING! Same with the favors bags on the right.
Next, there were the DECORATIONS. Total I think these cost me $15. I did a Peter Pan clothesline, a Mighty Colossus photo booth, a birthday treasure map, a Neverland sign and some lanterns & treasure chests that I borrowed.
This took me 2 hours I think. It’s just paper from one of those large rolls and super easy if you’re looking for something to make a statement that’s cheap and you don’t mind the “homemade look.” I added some felt for each of their accessories.This was my most expensive prop- a $13 piece of dry erase board that Ginger and I painted and my husband used his jigsaw to shave down the sides. I used some old fabric for the sail.My mother in law had these lanterns, so how lucky was that?! I used an old white sheet for the map (died with tea leaves) and then turned it into a Happy Birthday Sign.Ginger, Pearl & June all helped with these- they each stained them by hand with some colored stain I had and then I painted the words. The only problem with this was that we struggled to make the base sturdy.
We also did FAVOR BAGS & a few PHOTO PROPS:
These cost me $0 since I already had the brown paper bags & construction paper. I filled them with pixie sticks, gold coins, an eye patch and candy.Photo props: free.
Lastly- and most importantly, the FOOD! We did a Peter Pan cake, pixie dust (pixie sticks), fish & chips (gold fish & potato chips), cannonballs (malted milk balls) and Pirate’s Booty (Pirate’s Booty!). I’m also into printing my own labels on cardstock because it’s another free thing you can do & I think it gives it that extra special touch.
The spread. I also borrowed treasure chests from a couple people & filled one with some gold beads.So obviously, I am new to cakes. And yes, it turned out to be like the leaning tower of Peter Pan! But I was super excited about it, especially given that it was my second time using fondant. But this was a huge highlight getting to try something new & fun!Nothing like 30 kids on a sugar high.Saw this on some pinterest site- how cute is that?!Yummmmm.Aldi’s also sells Pirate’s Booty from time to time, fyi.Serving Ginger & Pearl their cake. And yes, that’s an actual dress I wear for realz- not just when I’m posing as Tiger Lily.My birthday girls!!Yo ho ho! What a fun parrrrrrrrty!
Elizabeth McKinney 
This looks amazing!! Awesome
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Thank you! It was a lot of fun!!!
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Thanks @raisinghumans 💚I appreciate it!
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