This was for my daughter's 4rd birthday party. INVITATIONS: The invitations emailed. We had about 10 boys and girls between 3 and 4.DECORATIONS: Balloons and crepe paper were around but most of the decoration was the event itself. ACTIVITIES: When they arrived there was a craft station in the dinning room. They made maracas with dixie cups and popcicle sticks. The kids decorated the cups with stickers and markers and then picked either rice or dried beans to put in the maraca. We used colored duct tape across the top to close them and tape the popcicle stick to it. There were also internet printoff Dora and Diego pictures for them to color if they finished their craft early. I had prominantly displayed a Dora pinata by the door outside. When all the kids arrived I had told them that Swiper had stolen our pinata and we had to go on an adventure to get it back. I handed out backpacks I had made from the Dora the explorer website. They were no sew, made of purple foam paper yarn and hot glue. This took the longest ahead of time - probably 2-3 hrs with printing of stencils, cutting etc. They looked pretty good and were durable for the event and about 3-4 weeks of tough play after. Inside I had made a map that started at our house went through the 1.  alligator swamp"    2. "dark tunnel"  3. "balloon cave" and ended at Swipers liar. The map was rolled up and attached to a loop on the outside. In the backpack was binoculars from the online party store and a flashlight from the same and they put their maracas in to use later to help scare swiper away. I also handed out explorer hats purchased for about 1.25$ each from the party store. I asked them "Who do you ask when you need to know where to go?" in unison they answered "MAP!". So we got out the map and went over the plans. I took them from the front to the back yard through the fence and on the other side was the "alligator swamp". This was a tent tarp with two blow up ride on pool alligators (end of season sale) and we had nailed some 2X4 together to make two lengths about 8-10ft long that they had to balance on to get across. Then upstairs to the deck and through the backdoor. The "dark tunnel" was a bunch of moving boxes taped together that snaked through the living room. It was about 20-25 ft long. I had them look in their backpack and see if they could find something to help in a dark tunnel. They were very excited to think of a flashlight! We ended by our office. I had a 4 person dome tent full almost to the top with balloons and on the sides and floor I had put cardboard cut out keys with different shapes and colors (red square red triangle blue square blue triangle etc) so that there were no two matching keys. As the kids came out of the tunnel they went to find a key to the chest that Swipper had hidden our pinata. That kept it to about 3-4 kids in there at a time. This was probably their favorite. After the party during free time tons of kids came back to this. After everyone had their key we went out to the deck. As soon as the birthday girl had her key I had a helper take the matching construction paper shape to the hidden chest and tape it to the key hole. When we got out to the deck asked them to look in their backpack for something that would help us see Swipper's liar. Again - very excited to fine the binoculars. As they looked around on the top of the swing set was a Swiper decoration hanging and they started screaming "Swipper now swipping" and pointing to the playscape. At the top of the playscape was and old trunk of ours now with the big colored shape that matched the birthday girls. I asked them if they could find their maracas to make noise and scare Swiper away which they did. My daughter had already figured out and was yelling that she had the key to open the trunk. So we opened it and got the pinata out. It was time for cake and punch while we hung up the pinata. The cake was a storebought Dora cake. But they loved and and kept talking about how they beat Swiper. Then the pinata and free time. The parents were seriously impressed and the kids had a blast. It was cheap but time intensive. The kids went home with their backpacks full of their adventure gear and spoils from the pinata as well as the explorer hats. For weeks I had parents tell me their children were still playing "explorer" with their favors!"