My daughter wanted a Dora the Explorer party for her 4th birthday. So I got to work. She looks a lot like Dora so I decided to dress her up like Dora.  We bought her a backpack and let her open it the day before the party. She wore orange shorts, pink shirt, yellow socks, white shoes, Backpack and a bracelet. (I made the bracelet from yellow beads, elastic, and a blue flower shank button.  They turned out great and I made one for each of the guests.) For the adventure we chose three "locations", the viney forest, the rumbling river and the party table.  I made maps for each of the kids by going to nickjr.com and getting the map coloring sheet. I didn't like the way it looked so I modified it by cutting out the location boxes (w/an exacto knife), gluing it to another paper and drawing in our locations. I had that sheet copied then I rubber cemented it to white sheets of felt.  I took a black marker and went around the edge of the felt to create that drawn look. Then I rolled each one and drew Map's face on the outside. Dora passed these out when the adventure began and they got to take them home in their gift bags.  I made the gift bags to look like backpack by coloring white paper bags purple, gluing construction paper eyes, mouth and eyebrows (taken from a coloring picture on nickjr.com) on, and then adding purple string to look like straps. In the bag they got Dora gummy candy, a coloring book (printed off the website, hole punched and tied together with yarn), Dora bracelet and a little star (glow in the dark from party supply store) then they added other things picked up during the adventure. The day of the party, I created the viney forest in her bedroom by taping green crepe paper (I pre-cut this) to the ceiling hanging down like vines. Her bedroom is upstairs so the stairs became the rumbling river.  We sectioned off the area at the bottom of the stairs to create a pit. We did this by pinning a big black trash bag (closed) to our couch and taping the other end of the bag to the wall. I pre-filled 110 blue and white balloons to put in the pit to be the "bubbles". I put a "magic flute" (bought at party supply store) in 6 balloons, one for each guest. I marked the prize balloons with a large X and mixed them in.  After leaving the viney forest, Dora led them down the rumbling river and into the bubbles below.  They all slid on their bottoms and thought this was great fun. Each child found a prize balloon and popped it to get their flute. (Note:  I had the children go into the bedroom and wait while my husband and I filled the balloon pit.  That way they could easily walk up the stairs before the pit was filled and it was a huge surprise when they came out.) Then they went to the party table (kitchen table) where they made binoculars using toilet paper rolls, stickers, yarn, glue, and blue plastic wrap (as the lenses).  I hot glued it together when they were done, put their names on it and put it in their bag. We then opened presents and after that, we ate Mexican food (quesadillas, tacos, taco pizza, cheese dip, salsa, and refried beans). We quickly got lunch going by throwing on a Dora table cloth and microwaving premade quesadillas.  The rest of the food was buffet style (mainly for the adults, the kids were to excited to eat much).  Cake and ice cream followed.  Then came the grand finale.  I had made a huge piñata that was waiting to be opened. I looked for a premade one but they all seemed too sturdy for 4-year-olds. So I bought a big balloon (party supply store), blew it up and taped eight cones to it (4 large and 4 small, alternating) to make it look like a sun. I then covered it with paper mache.  I found the recipe for the flour and water paste on PBSkid.org under the show ZOOM. It took me a few days and was very messy but my daughter loved it. I painted it yellow rather than use crepe paper, cut a hole in it and strung a string thru. I filled it that morning with candy and my brother and husband hung it in the tree moments before we attacked.  We just used a broom handle and no blind fold or twirling and it worked well for 4-year-olds. Dora started and it was broken on the second time thru the line up.  Then the kids took their candy in their backpacks and went home.  (Note:  I took a Polaroid picture of each child with Dora as they arrived. Then during lunch, I wrote a little Thank you on the picture and dropped it in their gift bag. They were each thanked personally and got to have a picture to remind them of their day.) To my daughter, it was a dream come true to be Dora for a day. And I was so happy watching her have the adventure of her life.