In April 2004, I hosted a “Fairy and Gentlemen” party for my 2 year old daughter Mackenzie. I hired Visual Giggles in Hurst, Texas to custom design the invitations. The designer shot a picture of Mackenzie with fairy wings and a flower tu-tu. Then designed an invitation with garden gates and birds and butterflies flying around – then you open the gates and there is little Mackenzie with the birds and butterflies flying all around her – the designer did a great job! As each guest arrived, the girls received little ribbon tu-tu’s, flower garlands, and fairy wings and the boys received plastic party top-hats, tuxedo vests (made out of fleece and elastic cut outs with little tails on the back) and magic wands. There was a large tent set up in the backyard for each guest to receive their clothes and a full-size mirror for them to see how cute they look. My father owned a machine-shop and had the capabilities to construct a maypole that I attached pastel colored ribbons that hung to the ground and had flowers wrapped around the pole. The children had lots of fun playing with the ribbons (and made for beautiful pictures!). There were white sheets covering the ground with rose petals for everyone to sit and eat on picnic-style. I also rented long buffet tables that the legs were cut in half (rented from a local rental supply) for the kids to have their own buffet food including flower-shaped peanut-butter & jelly sandwiches, bowl of cut-up fruit, bowl of Lucky Charms cereal, bowl of skittles and other small finger foods. We played a game for the adults that was called "Mackenzie's Fairy Speak" and I wrote down all the 2-year old words that Mackenzie says and the adults had to determine what the words actually meant - it was a lot of fun! The kids took turns hitting the butterfly piñata – then went over to have their pictures made – a professional event photographer was hired (www.down-memory-lane.com) and set up a photo backdrop next to a tree that had ribbon laced around with real flowers glued onto the ribbon and a toadstool (provided by photographer) with a green backdrop and each little fairy and gentlemen took turns sitting on the toadstool and had their picture taken one-by-one. The photographer then added fairy dust to each digital photo to add a little magic and they turned out wonderful! A photo was sent with every thank you note of the child that came, and any other pictures were posted to the photographers website for purchase from each person. The thank yous had a cute picture of each fairy at the party with the words “Thank You Fairy Much!” on the front! The party turned out wonderful and it was laid back and fun for the adults and children!!