Knights and Maidens -5yr- Water Noodle Joust

For my son's 5th birthday, we had a knights and maiden's party.

For invitations, I used the pattern of a paper piecing knight that included silver embossed sword, shield and armor and a blue cape. The maidens were a paper piecing pattern of a princess holding a wand and wearing a purple cape. The wording for the invitations were printed on a scroll that was attached to a shield that read "Once upon a time, there was a brave and valiant knight named Sir Ravi. On the anniversary of his 5th birth day, he invited other brave knights and fair maidens from near and far to celebrate." The knight fit into the pocket of the scroll and shield. The shield read, "His Sovereign Majesty, King Roger, Queen Noel, and Princess Noelene of Arretche extended an invitation to this most joyous of occasions to other Noble Knights and Fair Maidens from Near and Far.

The Festival took place at 11 o'clock in the morning of Saturday, the 16th of April in the year of our Lord 2005 at the castle courtyard located at Red Hill Park. Celebrants feasted on medieval food and cake, and partook in games of bravery and chivalry. The favour of a reply was requested by......Knight and maiden costumes will be provided. Just bring your good cheer and noble spirit to make this day one for the historians to record." 50 of these invitations were made in total.

For decorations, we made cardboard crests that included some of the family names of guests at the party. We used blue and red streamers and silver balloons for that royal look. My husband played classical music of the medieval time period, and my husband and I spoke in English accents to add to the ambiance. Since my son loves imaginative play, I made each child a knight or maiden's costume. I found quilted silver lame fabric on sale at Joann's and made a tunic with a V neck in 3 different sizes to fit the different age ranges at the party. A blue silk cape was attached with velcro on the shoulders of the tunic to match my son's Prince Phillip costume. We tied white rope around the tunic to give the boys a place to hold their swords when not dueling. Each boy received a sword and shield from Birthday Express.

For the girls, I made purple silk capes with jewels glued around the collar and bought purple princess hats from Birthday Express. I had a dress up box of plastic jewelry found at the dollar store to jazz up their costumes. When the children arrived, we took them to the dress up area and each was treated like royalty. Their smiles and wide-eyed looks were the best reward. One child asked, "Do I really get to wear this home?" Another said, "Now I have my Halloween costume."

Once dressed up, we played games of courage and skill by jousting with water noodles and using a bow and arrow to shoot at a target. The kids loved making homemade catapults made from wood pieces, which they painted to their liking, plastic spoons, rubber bands, and marshmallows. We had a contest to see whose marshmallow could go the furthest over the plastic Megablock castle I had set up as decoration.

The kids mostly enjoyed being led in battle by my son. Even the maidens were wielding swords to fight fierce dragons. Speaking of dragons, the pinata was a 4 foot dragon with scaly green skin with fire shooting out of his mouth. The kids used their swords to slay this intruder. The treasure inside of the pinata included jewels, silver and gold candy kisses, chocolate coins, Star Wars trading cards, plastic knight figurines, princess stickers and jewelry, etc. Once we finished with the pinata, each child was led through the castle gates one by one and officially announced as a member of the Knights and Maidens of the Round Table.

My husband introduced each child with a blow from his trumpet. We laid out a red plastic tablecloth as a red carpet for each child to walk down and into their family's arms. They each received a personalized certificate decorated with knight and shield clip art and tied with a red ribbon. One child told her mom that she really felt like a princess! For the cake, my brother-in-law made a grey castle about a foot and a half high and used candy rocks, cookie crumbs and gum drops as decorations. My son loved the graham cracker drawbridge. The children went home with smiles on their faces, a goody bag full of toys and candy, and their costumes on their backs.

For thank you notes, I paper pieced a dragon who was placed inside a grey castle that had a movable drawbridge (red fiber used as the cables.) The thank you note was written on a shield. I also included a 4x6 copy of the group picture of all of the knights and maidens of the round table. The kids loved playing with the knight/princess, dragon, and castle paper pieces to create medieval adventures on their own. We can't wait for our son's Star Wars party next year!