Knights & Ladies -4yr- Red Carpet & Throne

Knights and Ladies on a Quest (4yrs old)  My daughter gave out scroll invitations to her friends.

We cut the invitations out of brown grocery bags and glued it onto wooden sticks. The writing on the invitations was "Old English" style font which I downloaded off the Internet for free. The invitation read:  Hear Ye!, Hear Ye! In accordance to the King of 'LAST NAME' proclamation; Lady 'CHILD's FIRST NAME' 4th Birthday Celebration will be held on.... His Majesty requests Sir 'CHILD's FIRST NAME'  of 'CHILD's LAST NAME'  attendance Festivities will begin at 11:00am. Please have your carriage drop you off at .... The King and Queen of LAST NAME  are welcome to attend. The Quest for the pink dragon's golden eggs was my daughter's theme so I add a pink dragon (free clipart off the Internet) on the invitation.  Most of the party decorations we made ourselves but I did purchase some things from http://www.birthdayzbyshindigz.com and http://www.orientaltrading.com (my order came in within 4 days and I live in Germany)

For decorations we had:  - Banners - made out of gold gossamer (birthdayzbyshindigz.com) and a spray painted a pink dragon in the  middle - Shields- made out of cardboard (used to hold a case of soda), I cut out the shape and my husband spray painted it gold, we than glued on cutouts of the pink dragon in the middle - Plastic swords and ax (orientaltrading.com) - Torch Rope guards- made out of empty can of corn glued down onto wrapping paper tube, we wrapped the whole thing with gold florist foil (birthdayzbyshindigz.com) and trimmed it with red & gold florist foil as flames.  - Throne- pink padded wooden chair sprayed painted in gold. The pink padding was pink material wrapped around used pillow stuffing and glued down onto cardboard.  I used my lace table cloths and bed sheets as backdrops on all the walls of Throne room and added the homemade shield and swords to give it a medieval look. We purchased a red carpet (birthdayzbyshindigz.com) which lead to her throne. The homemade torch rope guards was an added touch which I later reused for my older daughter's birthday (Luau that went Bad) party later that night. We wrapped all the tables with gold paper tablecloth and used cut out pink gossamer as table runners (birthdayzbyshindigz.com).

The tableware I purchased from (birthdayzbyshindigz.com) which included pink plastic plates glued onto gold paper plates, clear plastic flutes (spray painted gold bottoms) and napkins (they'll personalize it if you want) When the child came in, each received a crown. The boy's crowns were from Burger King to which I covered up the BK logo with a pink dragon. The girl's crowns were in the shape of a cone, which I cut out from pink poster board. I added a pink gossamer streamer at the top and hot glue gunned the trimming with small pink pearls that I bought by the meter.

The German store I went to sold it for 1,00 Euro per meter about $1.50 a yard The first thing the children did was hear a story about the how the Ladies and Knight's of the kingdom set out on a Quest to find the pink dragon's golden eggs. It talked about how the ladies and knights had a feast before going off to their quest and came back the castle for a huge celebration after they've found the golden eggs. The feast in the story mimic what the children had for lunch; diamond sandwiches (ham & cheese crust cut off), chicken drumsticks, fruits, hot dogs and pizza for the older kids and adults. One of the parents showed the children how to toast the birthday girl with fruit punch.

After lunch the children set off for their quest. I gave them all a pouch full of magical crystal stone (just like in the story) and the clues to find their swords and shields. The clues were pictures of where they would find their weapons. For example; I put the shields in the bedroom and the clues in the children's pouch showed a bed & dresser. After the all children had their weapons, the children set out to find the tower that held the golden dragon egg.  I used another room and the door had a picture of a tower (just like in the story) taped to it. The children found the golden eggs, (German Kinder eggs wrapped in gold florist foil). German Kinder eggs are chocolate eggs with a toy in the middle. The children were suppose to use the weapons they found to slay the evil green dragons guarding the tower that held the pink dragon's golden eggs but my husband felt that at that age it may be too traumatic for them so we just had the children find the eggs.

After the quest the children all gathered in the Throne area (just like the story). It was where the knights & ladies in the story received a present from the king for their noble deeds. Each time my daughter got a present to open, the person who gave it to her also got a present in return to open. The presents were plastic disposable GLAD containers (my husband with spray painted the lids gold) filled with party favors. I tied gold gossamer streamers on the boys party favor boxes and pink gossamer streamers on the girls to know what's what. I purchased most of the favors like chocolate coins, toy airplanes, toy cars and candy from orientaltrading.com. The girls' toys included bracelets and necklaces all bought by the meter and glue gunned together. 

After the children got their presents, they sat around the round table and sang Happy Birthday to my daughter. My daughter had a pink castle cake and strawberry ice cream. I got the idea from, birthdshindz.com. The cake was a 2 layer white cake with pink icing. I bought vanilla icing and used the icing color to change into pink. I also used the icing color to change plain sugar into pink crystals. On all four sides of the rectangular cake, I put  towers made out of pink ice cream cups and ice cream cone iced in pink icing and rolled into pink crystal sugar. I used sugar wafers as the drawbridge and columns on the top of the castle