FLOWER FAIRIES      For my daughters 6th birthday she decided upon the theme  Flower Fairies. We had lots of fun planning the party together. She got the idea from the great book "Fairy Houses" by Tracy Kane.  This book does a great job capturing any childs' imagination.       We started by planning the decorations for our outdoor May party. The color scheme was pink, lavender and gold. We decided twinkle lights were very important so we hung them all around our overhang. We also added some twinkle lights with ornamental flower covers. In order to make the overhang cozier we draped netting from the ceiling and back side.  Inside, we filled the living room with pink and lavender balloons to give the girls a fairy welcome when they entered the house. The table was set with fairy goodies. The table cloth, napkins, cups and blowers were precious.  They had pictures of darling little girl fairies on them.  I ordered them on line (I believe at Shindigz.com ) Each girl had a set of fairy wings waiting for her at the table.  The table top also had baskets filled with garden flowers for an added touch.        I wanted to have lots of activities for the girls to choose from during our three hour party.  When the girls arrived we had a face painter ready to decorate their faces with beautiful flowers and butterflies. (You can use a professional or a  friend) Our face painter also painted necklaces on the girls which was a big hit. Once everyone arrived I read the story "Fairy Houses" so that they all knew what our theme was. We then talked about the activities they could do while they were here. For the rest of the party girls 1) continued with the face painter, 2) hunted for hidden butterflies (plastic) in our garden, 3) threw water balloons at a flower drawn in chalk on our fence, 4) Made flower crowns from fresh carnations and dental floss (simply ask a local flower shop for the heads of the carnations only. The girls thread the flowers onto dental floss using a large chunky needle. This is very easy and tons of fun. You can buy the carnation heads inexpensively. You need about 12 flowers per crown. 5) Painted their fingernails in lavender by my 12 year old niece 6) Built their own fairy houses in our garden using sticks, pinecones, bark and acorns.  They loved doing this.  We gave extra fairy building materials to the girls to take home as part of their goody bag (my daughter and I had lots of fun collecting these items before the party and it was free!) We also had an electric bubble machine going all the time which was such fun (especially for the younger siblings) But make sure you put it in a place where they won't slip once the bubble solution hits the ground. This was a $30 investment that I don't regret.  We have used that machine so much during  the past several months.        While the girls did the activities they also snacked. The party was from 1:00-4:00 so no meal was served.  We had big, beautiful strawberries with chocolate sauce for dipping, little sandwiches in the shape of flowers and butterflies, fruit sncks and lots of drinks to choose from. The food was kept very simple because I have found that it normally goes uneaten.     Once the activities were complete we had cake.  My daughter loves a beautiful cake so I normally put a lot of effort into her cake. We loved this year's cake! It was fairies dancing around a Maypole. We used a circular shape cake and then put a tall, skinny sucker right through the center of it for the maypole. I then attached multi-color ribbon to the sucker (at the top with a glue gun) the ribbon gently flowed to the little fairies that were sitting on the cake "dancing' around the maypole.  I collected the fairies here and there at craft shows and bought a couple at a small local toy store. There were 6 fairies in all. She wanted 6 since she was turning 6 years old. We added a few shiny cake decorating balls and flowers on the side. It was precious.     Once cake and icecream were dne we moved onto presents. My daughter sat on a pillow which was decorated with butterflies(she feels butterflies are fairies in disguise) She loved sitting on the pillow and it seemed to add a bit of order to the usual mayhem that accompanies present opening. She sat down (feeling like a flower princess) and the girls all sat around her and handed her their presents. It was very sweet.       The party favors included things that were part of the party activities.  They took their wings, wore their flower crowns, brought home a brown bag full of fairy house making materials and grabbed a ballon with a small container of bubbles attached to it.  The party was lots of fun and full of happy memories.