Knights Joust -7yr- Chicken Legs, Cheese & Grapes

Knights Jousting Party  For my son's 7th birthday party, we had a medieval joust.

INVITATIONS The invitations were scrolls of off-white paper that we burned around the edges and then rolled and tied with a piece of ribbon.  They read:  Here Ye!  Here Ye!  His Royal Majesty, Prince Aaron, hereby invites you to a jousting tournament at (location) on the (date) in the year of our lord Two Thousand and Six.  Registration for the tournament should be completed by (date) by contacting the Queen at (phone number).  These were hand delivered by my son to his friends.

DECORATIONS  We had the party at the park, so we didn't really have to decorate.  We did find some plastic with gray brick like design, and we used it around the table with the cake and gifts.  We also covered all of the park tables with brown tablecloths.  We also purchased several items in advance.  First of all, we bought two hop-a-roos and two giant inflatable swords online.  Then, I did research on the computer for all of the invited guests, and I found family shields for almost every guest (searching for family crest and their last names), the one that I could not find, I found one that was close. 

I then drew these onto cardboard shields that I had made with elastic on the back that they could put their arm through.  I also attached a little card to the back of each one that explained what their shield meant.  For example, our family crest has three seashells on it, so that meant that our family was in the king's navy.  The boys really liked that.

FOOD  I ordered an ice cream cake from dairy queen and it had a knight fighting a dragon on it.  In addition, we served chicken drumsticks and homemade bread, pulled into pieces, grapes, and cheese; kind of a medieval feast.  All the boys had fun pretending to be eating at court like in the movies.  The cake was a hit, and it was easier than bringing cake and ice cream to the park. 

JOUST The main activity of the day was the double elimination Joust!  We created a chart, and each of the boys names were put on it in the order that they arrived at the party.  Then the boys jousted!  We gave each boy a hop-a-roo and an inflatable sword.  They got one point for a body hit, 2 points for knocking the opponent off of the hop-a-roo, and zero points for a head shot. Each boy got two chances, and the winner received a knight's armor set that we got at Shop-ko, it had a breastplate, helmet, and shield.  Everyone really got into the joust, and a few of the parents had to try it out.

CREATE-A-SHIELD  I told each of the boys that the shields that they had were created because of something that their ancestors had done.  Then I asked them what they thought would be on their shield if it was made because of something they did or liked.  I gave them each a piece of construction paper with a shield shape on it, and they used markers and stickers to create new shields.

DRAGON Finally, towards the end of the party, my niece squealed Eek, a dragon.  Help! Help!  And my husband challenged all of the brave knights to help save the damsel in distress.  We went over near the big tree and my brother let the rope loose a little and a dragon pinata appeared.  We brought out a boffer sword, which is basically a water noodle with a piece of PVC pipe inside it and duct taped together, and let the kids bash at the pinata with the sword.  When the dragon was finally slain, my husband took the head and mounted it on a trophy base he had made out of heavy duty cardboard.  The trophy head was presented to the boy who had slain the dragon.

GOODY BAGS  Inside the goody bags, I found a bendable knight at the dollar store whose name was Sir Wince-a-Lot.  In addition, I had put tons of candy and small plastic dragons in the pinata, which they also put in their goody bags.

THANK-YOU  For the thank you cards, we included a picture of each of the kids during the joust.  I have received lots of favorable comments from parents about the joust.  Some of the parents were afraid it would be too violent, but using the inflatable swords and the hop-a-roos worked really well, and nobody got hurt.  The teacher at school commented that all of the boys had been talking about it all week long (All of the boys in his class were invited).