Ayla’s 3rd Fairy Garden Birthday Party

Ayla loved to watch her daddy care for his plant collection at home. She will play with it any moment she can sneak into the dirt, digging, poking and watering them. We threw several ideas at her to see what she was interested in. Her favorite show at that time was Dora, “would you like a Dora themed party, a Fairy garden party?” She chose the Fairy  Garden Party. And so my research began to create the most memorable and budget friendly Fairy Garden Birthday Party. Dora sufficed as just the cake topper that year.

We ordered from Amazon and Oriental Trading. I looked into several kits online and though I liked the idea of the kits, it was not as budget friendly and personal as I knew it could be; and so I was on the search to create my own deconstructed Fairy Garden Kit. I also decided to rent a bouncy castle meath to add to the kids’ entertainment. Since more than half of the people that come to the party we’re adults (mostly aunts and uncles), I was always compelled to make sure the had a part in the party too. I found a great deal in succulents and thought, hey, they can put together their own succulent(s) to take home. Succulents are relatively easy to care for and who wouldn’t love a little green plant to take home? I was told later in after the party that many of the adults who came that day still have the succulents today. 

I ordered the following for the Fairy Garden Party:

AMAZON:

• • • ReBagMe tote bags (can you believe typically  plastic party bags cost just a little bit less than these tote bags?! This tote served as their goodie bag and can hold all their Fairy Gardens creations, some surprise chocolate eggs ( All my kids are obsessed with them) and pinwheels; even their parent’s succulent plant creation.
    • Broccoli Sprouts – I chose broccoli sprouts (this one was a blend with radish and a few other sprouts too- it was really tasty and we love it on pate and sandwiches) because it is something the kids and adults can taste and that can grow by pretty much  the next day— kids and adults can both be impatient to see results of a plant growing and taste them too (I printed out informational posters with sample simple  Broccoli Sprout Recipes )
    • Dora Birthday Topper/ Figurine
    • Animal Figurines ( this particular set I liked, because it came with 60 pcs and it actually states that it is BPA and less free) that will fit in the Fairy Garden Container and that wasn’t too much of a choking hazard — I would still say it is better for kids ages 3 and up
    • Goodnight Fairies (I did not  end up reading it as I intended, but had it on display for parents looking to getting to know more about “Fairies”. The book talks about how fairies takes care of broken toys and flowers when children are asleep. I ended up reading Vegetable  Soup by Lois Elhert instead before assembly of the Fairy Gardens as an incentive to grow our own things to eat (broccoli sprouts in our case). The kids and adults followed along with the Pretend cooking, chopping, throwing all the vegetables into the soup, mixing and “eating” it at the end of the story. I felt it was a good activity to connect the kids to what we will be doing next and was happy to see the parents had followed along too with their children

  

  • Garden Gnomes by Lizzie Midgley   about what gnomes do in the garden
  • 3 Flashing Cake topper ( it was wacky and fun and colorful)
  • Tree toppers
  • Fairy Garden Stickers (they are so pretty and detailed- we used these to decorate the happy birthday banner)

ORIENTAL TRADING

I find this company to be a joy to work with. I always try to ask about the products I purchase to make sure they are safe and/ or practical and their customer service always gets back promptly with the answers.

• Metal bucket pots (to hold succulents for the adults)
• Glitter metallic foam stickers to decorate the metal buckets (for the adults)— in retrospect , I don’t think this was necessary
• Clear plastic containers to hold the Fairy Garden (I had asked them if it was safe to grow plants and eat them and was given the okay to do so even though the outpost of those containers were just to hold wrappers party favors— broccoli sprouts grew quickly so I know they wouldn’t be in an unofficial food container for long). The only downside to this container were the metal handle part that were used as the handle. It was a little pointy and I could see a kid who isn’t careful or who’s too excited about something in the container and getting a possible scrape from it— I glued those pointy ends and made them work— the glue was “food safe”— I found it on Amazon and it was meant to be used to mend broken bowls and plates— the glue parts came off for some, but stayed on for the most part until the end of the party at least) I always like to give the parents a heads up on something like this, just so they know.
• Stickers for the plastic containers that had the ideal base setup for a Fairy Garden 
• Bendable Fairies

• Gnome figurines
• Fairy garden houses

• Pinwheels (they spinned decently- I read that the foil ones spin better, but went with these because of the great size and the look)

We ordered an assortment riceballs (onigiri), roasted pork buns from our favorite pork buns bakery in Chinatown and bubble tea varieties with jellies from the riceball place. We ordered cake from our favorite French Bakery in Queens, along with some of their well known almond croissants and pastries. You can’t go wrong with pastries and coffee so we ordered some canned Illy Coffee to go with it. The aunties and uncles had fun decorating the cake with all the extra animal figurines, trees, gnomes and Fairies (making the party even more meaningful).

Have you ever been to a Fairy Garden Party? What are some other ideas you can add on to a Fairy Garden Themed Party?

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