Princess & Knight Party -3yr- Wiches Bubbling Brew

For my daughter's 3rd birthday, we threw a Disney Princess & Knight Party.

The invitations were printed at home on 8 ½ x 11 scrapbook paper from Michaels. The paper was perfect because it was a parchment color with a floral scroll design border. The invitations were worded: Hear Ye, Hear Ye, all Princesses and Knights of the Court of (our street name)! In honor of her 3rd birthday, Princess Emma Caroline cordially invites you to a Royal Celebration! The rest of the invitation had the date & time details. Each invitation was then rolled and sealed with a Hallmark Gold Crown Seal and tied with a ribbon. My daughter dressed up in a princess gown and tiara and we hand-delivered the invitations.

On the day of the party, I placed a Disney princess happy birthday castle blow-up on the front walkway and the front door was draped with a large pink swag (I took an inexpensive plastic tablecloth, cut it in half lengthwise, tied two ends together in a simple knot and created a swag over the doorway). Inside I had the Disney Princess Tea Party CD playing. Our foyer table was decorated with a basket of red apples, a black crow and my daughter's Snow White Doll. Above the table is an oval mirror that I decorated with red tulle and green ivy.

On the mirror I used a white dry erase maker to write Mirror, Mirror on the wall As each child arrived, they were given their goody sack. I used brown paper bags from the grocery store and decorated each one with the child's name (i.e. Princess ____ or Sir _____) and a clip-art picture of a princess or knight that I had colored with colored pencils. Inside the girls bags were wands, boas, tiaras, gloves and rings.

All of the girls came dressed as their favorite princess or in a party dress. The boys bags had a knight sword, breastplate, shield and crown. I really lucked out because my daughter's birthday is mid-October and the Dollar Tree had an entire of collection of knight costume pieces for Halloween. I got the crowns from Burger King and replaced the restaurant logo with a red sparkle scrapbook paper circle to look like a jewel. All of the girl's costume pieces came from Target's Dollar Spot. Once the kids were dressed up, they moved to the craft area. I cut out large crowns from foam sheets and placed magnets on the back. Each child was able to decorate their crown magnets with glitter glue, sticky jewels and foam sticky shapes.

After the crafts the kids ate. I emptied out our living room of most of the furniture and moved our dining room table into the center of the room (the rooms connect and there is more room to move around the table in our living room). I decorated the room by cutting plastic pink & purple tablecloths (from Dollar Tree) in half length-wise and draping each section from the center ceiling fan (it was turned off) to the opposite wall. This created a feeling of being under a canopy. It was such a dramatic effect for very little money.

I also took more of the tablecloths and created swags over all the doorways. I made tulle flowers (cut tulle into strips, layer several strips together, fold stack in half, attach pipe cleaner around middle and fluff to look like a flower) and attached these to the swags. I purchased a huge banner from Party City that had all of the Disney princesses on it and reads Happy Birthday Princess. It made a great backdrop for pictures. Also at Party City I purchased another banner that was a picture of Cinderella's Castle and placed that on an opposite wall.

The dining table was covered in a pink plastic tablecloth. At each place setting was a glass slipper place card, crown box filled with a party mix, pink or purple plates, napkins and spoons. I purchased the plastic glass slippers at Dollar Tree and created the place card by attaching cardstock to a toothpick and placing it into the slipper. Each slipper was filled with pink M&M's (breast cancer awareness M&M's). The crown boxes were plain white handled wedding favor boxes from the Dollar Tree. I decorated each box with a cardstock crown that I cutout & glittered in gold and glued to the front of the favor box. I filled these boxes with all the pink treats I could think of (pink M&M's, pink frosted animal crackers, pink Whoppers candy, etc). I glued acrylic jewels and sequins to the cups and spoons. I also made napkin rings by cutting up paper towel rolls, covering them with foil and ribbon and gluing on jewels and sequins. The kids loved the jewels on everything and said they felt very fancy!

I made a birthday throne for my daughter by covering 2 bed pillows in pink satin fabric ($2.00 per yard from Wal-Mart). One pillow was the seat and the other I attached to the back of the chair with pink tulle tied in a bow. I placed her throne at the head of the table. For the other seats I cut up more plastic tablecloths to make seat covers that draped to the floor. It was another child's birthday that day so I decorated her chair with tulle bows and sat her at the opposite end of the table (so the two birthday girls were facing each other).

Once the kids were seated I came to the table with a crystal pitcher filled with green colored vinegar and a plastic black caldron with baking soda. I told the kids a nice old woman came to the door before the party and left a special drink for kids. I told them we just had to mix it up. When I added the vinegar to the caldron, the baking soda and vinegar reacted by bubbling up. The kids all thought that was really cool, but decided they probably shouldn't drink it because it sounded like it was from the wicked witch in the Snow White movie. Instead the kids drank fruit punch soda (pink soda ofcourse!).

I served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut with a flower shaped cookie cutter. In the center of the table I had a tin princess bucket (from Easter) that I filled partially with uncooked beans & stuck Rice Krispie Treat crowns in (made Rice Krispie Treats using Berry Rice Krispies that are pink & purple, cut them out using a crown cookie cutter & attached long lollipop sticks). It made a really pretty display and each child got one to eat. I also had a plastic princess bucket (from Halloween) that I filled with pretzel magic wands (pretzel rods covered ¾ with melted pink colored chocolate and rolled in pink or purple colored sugar).

The cake table was a square card table covered in a pink plastic tablecloth. Next to the cake was a crystal cake stand with my daughter's Beauty & the Beast tea set, a velour red rose and a Belle doll. I made a castle cake (cakecentral.com has awesome ideas) using square cake pans and ice cream cones for the towers. I had plastic princess figurines on the cake. I even make a small pond of water out of icing and sat a plastic Ariel in the middle! The cake took several hours to make, but it was so worth it! My daughter actually started to cry when we cut into it! I also made a small star shaped cake for the other birthday girl and we sang to each girl and let them each blow out their candles.

After cake and ice cream my daughter sat in her throne and opened presents. Since it was an after school party I didn't plan too many activities. All 10 kids at the party live on our street and they all went outside to free play. My daughter loved the party and I thoroughly enjoyed planning it! The only thing I think I would have done differently was to give the boys their swords at the end of the party!