Puff the Magic Dragon

Description

Desserts. Our party was small, and for once, I designed a table sized appropriately for our party. Lynlee’s Petite Cakes (LynleesPetiteCakes.com) make the cutest little dragon wings and tails that popped up out of mounds of dragon-fire toasted marshmallow frosted brownies. She also made some darling monograms cupcake toppers.  The cookies came from the talented Renee at Bees Knees Creative—the detail she put in the patterns on Puff were amazing! We had oreo truffles (approved by Jackie Paper, of course) and a homemade version of Kinder Eggs.

 

The eggs themselves were made based on a Martha Stewart tutorial. After coating the insides in chocolate, I stuffed them full of candies and made darling little pom-pom baby dragons to put inside. The kids had to smash the eggs open to get to the treats; the adults seemed a tad more excited about this than the kids!

 

The kids’ table.  For lunch in the magic land of Honalee I chose a low to the ground table for the kids and used cushions (from Brennan’s 1st birthday) for them to sit on. We served boxed lunches to the children. These are always a great option for kids, as they get excited about opening their lunches as they would opening a present.

 

Décor and activities. Puff traveled with Jackie Paper on a boat with billowed sails, so we painted our floor blue like water (really, we are about to put in a new floor so this was a happy chance to do something so crazy) and put up a ship in the living room.  We even had railing up to rope off the water area!

 

Three year olds don’t stand for organized activities in general, especially if there is a bounce house down the cherry lane in the backyard, so we put a treasure box of “Fancy Stuff” out for the kids to play with…pirate swords, bubbles and giants rings (hula hoops) were snatched up and run through the house. We had a crafty activity for the kids, making little sailboats, and set up a baby pool for them to go sail them in. There were a lot of shipwrecks in the bottom of the pool from overzealous tiny sailors, but the handful of 5 year olds there really enjoyed the little boats.

 

Favors. Since I didn’t overdo the dessert table, I made up for it with favors! Puff laid out his “treasures” for the kids and they got to choose lots of magic little things and put them in their box of dragon magic to take home. 

Design Inspiration

My son, Brennan, was finally old enough to choose his own birthday party theme this year and he dearly wanted it to be all about dragons. Rather than focus on the big scary-type dragons, we looked for inspiration in an old Peter Paul & Mary song my mom used to sing us when we were kids – Puff the Magic Dragon.

 This song about childhood imagination seemed wholly appropriate -- where a cardboard box can become a boat, anything long and skinny will serve as a sword, and where ordinary objects become magical with a little storytelling. The song also sadly sings about how fleeting these moments of childhood all have to make the most of these days and celebrate them while they are here! 

Decorating Style

Whimsical

Project Details

Paperie + Styling | Frog Prince Paperie 

Photography | John McLaughlin Photography

Fondant Cupcake Tops | Lynlee’s Petite Cakes 

Cookies | Bees Knees Creative 

Applique T-Shirt  | A Stitching We Will Go