Princess Fairy Party 5yr - Crown Decoration

Princess/Prince/Fairy/Knight Party  This was for my daughters 5th birithday and was a large outside party with most parents and siblings staying, kids ages 2-12. 

Invitations: Did them on the computer.  They read " All Princess, Princes, Fairies and Knights, A message that is sure to delight.  One of the princess in our land, is having a birthday and it should be grand.  Princess ___________ would like it if you, could come to her catle to celebrate too.  Come in costume just for fun, but also bring play clothes to jump and run."  We rolled them up and put them inside toilet paper roles and wrapped them with gold paper.  Put a couple of little candies in them first, used and address label and a couple of stickers and you can actually mail them through the post office.  

Welcome:  We used banner paper and drew a castle wall. We also did a sign that said "  Princess ____________ invites you to her kindgom." We placed these outside the house to welcome the guests.  When the guests arrived, I had someone take their child's picture on a thrown (used a red table cloth over a chair with a white boa stapled around the edges and some purple balloons in the background.  These pictures were used for their thank you cards.   We had a castle jumper and a castle cake. 

Crafts:  The kids decorated gold crowns (from Burger King).  I predecorated with a few jewels so that they would turn out nice regardless of how them embellished them.  Used jewels, glitter glue and sequence.  Have them write their names on the back first. The also had the choice to make princess crowns with gold wire and lots of curly ribbon tied to the back.  They got to pick the colors.  Adult help needed here.

We made wands: Take a straw , a pipe cleaner, some beads and curly ribbon.  Form the middle of a pipe cleaner into a shape, add beads to the shape, put the ends of the pipe cleaner into one end of the straw. Tie ribbon to the top of the straw tight to  hold the pipe cleaners in place.  Add one long piece of curly ribbon to the shape.  Cute and inexpensive and work well with girls, not hearty enough for boys, but they weren't interested anyway.  Make a sample first.   

Activity: We did a magic wishing fountain where all the adults formed an outside cirlce and blew magic bubbles into the middle and all the kids danced around trying to catch the bubbles and were making secret wishes.  Very cute and fun for everyone. 

Food: Served chicken drumsticks, baked beans and salad.  Parents were all encouraged to stay.  Inexpensive and easy (beans were in a crock pot)and had a kids table with princess punch ( hi-c punch and orange sherbert) and kids snacks (fish crackers, grapes, cheese sticks, pretzels).  

Favors:  Found some pink, purple and turquoise round containers at a dollar store (got lucky).  Put a couple of glittery stickers on the outside and wrote each child's name on one "Princess ________".  Added a piece of gold tissue paper and filled them with some jewels, balloons, candy, magic fairy bubbles, castle stickers and my favorite part - found some single serving puddings that were green. Any odd colored pudding would do.

Wrote a little story using my computer and address labels.  "Once upon a time a kind princess was taken by a dragon.  A brave prince went to rescue her. He slayed the dragon and saved the princess.  The princess and prince lived happily every after and the castle cook and fairy turned the dragon into a magical and delicious pudding." The address label with the story covered the pudding words on the top.  I tied a helium balloon to the bubbles (which weighted them down).  These looked beautiful and pretty much served as the decoration for the party.  Put them all around the area.  

Success:  One key to success with large and very involved parties is to get adult guests to help.  They love to participate so don't hesistate to get them involved.  If you're really organized, assign them to tasks ahead of time (like getting the food out, making wands, taking guests pictures on the thrown etc.)   

Presents:  I put stickers with numbers on them.  Then each child took their present and sat in front of the birthday princess on her thrown.  We started with whoever had present #1.  That eliminates all the fuss of whose present gets opened when.    I also try to always add something fun just for the adults. This time it was a wine tasting bar set up and special royalty gobbles ( found at the dollar store too).  Other times I've done trivia games relating to the party theme and even a mixer game where they either have a joke question or the answer and they have to find their partner.  Typed these out using computer address labels. 

This is a blast and helps them get to know one another.  Adults need to have some fun too.    This was truly a magical kingdom day for all.