The Jaguar vs the Fairy ⇒

This is the story of Elise's third birthday party.

I've been planning a fairy birthday party for Elise pretty much since the day she was born. I am a big believer in all things make-believe and fairies are right at the top of the list. I just love the idea of them...beautiful dainty creatures watching us from trees in the forest.

Anyway, I've been planning this party for three years and this was going to be the year. I got fairy wings from my dad's drama class, had great fairy tea planned with little fairy sandwiches, flower sushi (ah the advantage of making california rolls yourself), magic wands made of fruit. There was going to be a fairy make-over station where all the little girls could don their wings, have their nails painted with glitter nail polish and then they would go and make crowns and wands. The piece de resistance was to be a treasure hunt in the enchanted forest across the street from our house. I was going to use lots of twinkling fairy lights to set the mood. I made the invitations with a fairy on the front that looked like the fairy princess being invited to the party (nerdy, I know). Put fairy dust inside and mailed them in the post to our invitees. Elise even picked out the cupcakes in our cupcake book.

Then...woe is me...we were watching Diego and Baby Jaguar was to start the Jaguar party by growling. Elise turns to me and says "I want a jaguar party!" "Oh yeah," says I. Well, for the following couple of weeks I tried to get her back onto the fairy themed party. I even offered to do both parties since one of our invitees wasn't able to make the party and said we could do a Jaguar party with Bella the next day. Each time I mentioned the fairy party, without fail, Elise said "No mama. I'm having a jaguar party. I only want one party and I want a jaguar party."

Not wanting to be one of THOSE parents who lives vicariously through my children, I officially changed the theme and started searching out jungle party ideas.

Today was Jaguar Day. I used green crepe paper streamers and curling ribbon for vines on the ceiling in the entry way and dining room. Green tissue paper leaves on the light over the dining room table and the walls in the entry way as well as long brown paper with smaller leaves stuck on. In the corner of the living room was the Jaguar Spa, a long piece of blue wrapping paper hanging from one of our speakers with blue curling ribbon stuck to it and white and blue tissue paper crumpled at the bottom to create a water fall. Some green streamers and ribbon for more vines around the water fall as well. I must admit, the decorations looked pretty cool for $10 worth of paper and ribbon.

As the kids came in, we played The Lion Sleeps Tonight on the stereo and Elise greeted them all with a "Mrwawrwaaaaw!" They then proceeded to the Jaguar Spa to have their claws painted whatever colour they wanted, a pink nose, whiskers and spots with eyeliner pencils. I made them all ears out of paper and hair bands. We had a glueing and cutting project going at the table and they just all played for about an hour. Then we went to the "jungle" across the street, each armed with a map to follow to rescue a baby animal. Along the way they found envelopes that contained a couple of facts about the animals they were rescuing. The animals were beany babies and I got an ostrich, iguana, kiwi bird, beige bear (Kermode Bear!), and anteater. I bought a special jaguar stuffy for Elise but she insisted that she didn't want to look for a baby jaguar, she wanted to look for another animal so she got the anteater and Daniella got the jaguar which made everyone happy. The kids really enjoyed the animal rescue and were extra excited to learn they got to keep their rescued animal.

Then we came back to the house for lunch (california rolls, turkey sandwiches, Edamame beans, chips and cupcakes). I had bought some cool jungle animal cups, plates and cutlery at Walmart. I made cupcakes for dessert. Most of them were decorated green with bright candies on them but there were "Jaguars" hiding amongst them-one for each of the kids who, of course, all chose green ones!

Elise opened her presents (Aqua Doodle from Lydia, Jungle print pants and shirt from Samantha, Dora card games from Julian, Calico Critters bedroom set from Tess, and a croquet set from Grandma and Grandpa).

It was a great party and I'm writing this now because Elise is conked out having a nap.

Oh, P.S. Daniella is having a fairy party when she turns two--before she has an opinion!