Lego Knights Kingdom -4yr- Lego Quest

For my son's 4th birthday he requested a Lego Knights Kingdom party. 

The invitations were purchased (although I usually like to make my own) from classiccommunications.com.  They were castles with two jousting knights on the front (who actually moved back and forth) and then they opened up and I was able to print the inside invitation on the computer.  I addressed the envelopes to "Sir" for the boys and "Princess" for the girls at "Castle (whatever their last name was)."  The inside invitation read: "Here Ye, Here Ye, Sir Spencer, the noble knight of El Dorado Hills invites all knights and princesses in the kingdom to join him in celebrating the 4th anniversary of his birth.  Festivities will commence at eleven in the morning on the 21st of October in the year of our Lord 2005 in Sherwood Forest, Fairytale Town, Province of Land Park, California.  Swords, shields and armor to be provided.  (Our fair maiden guests may wish to don their princess attire)." 

Prior to the party I made swords and shields out of form core board, spray painted them blue and gold (this is very easy but time comsumming and involves a razor blade).  On the back I glued a piece of felt for the handle.  I bought cheap shiny fabric at Walmart and made knights costumes which were just long pieces of fabric with a hole cut out for the head (with gold piping glued around the neck hole) and then on the front a piece of grey felt cut into the shape of a sword with a gold hawk glued onto the shield (hawk was made out of gold scrapbooking paper from Michael's and looked like the hawk on Sir Jayko's shield from the Lego knights). 

The knights helmets were purchased from Birthday Express as were the princess' hats.  I made princess wands out of sticks spray painted gold with felt stars with streams of ribbon hanging out the end.  We were lucky to live close enough to Fairytale Town to have the party there in Sherwood Forest. 

With such an amazing setting, very few decorations were needed but I did make two big shields out of foam core board: one said Spencer's Birthday in gold die cut letters and the other had an X in gold on it and in each of the four spaces I put a gold number 4.  These were hung at the entrance to Sherwood Forest.  I also made a banner using gold craft string and glued triangles of blue felt to it and on each triangle I put one of the letters in Spencer's name and also glued pictures of each of the Lego knights (which I ordered by calling the gift shop at Legoland, California - I also ordered the plates and napkins from the same store - it was MUCH cheaper than Birthday Express). 

When the guests arrived, they were outfitted in their costumes and then told that Queen Jennifer's royal jewels had been stolen and they had to search Sherwood Forest for the jewels.  The jewels were from Oriental Trading Co and were peel and stick.  Once they found a baggie of jewels they then used them to decorate a gold crown (also from Oriental Trading Co) for their royal parent!  This kept everyone busy while others were arriving. 

Once everyone was there I handed out maps of Fairytale Town and directions for our "missions" to the parents.  First the guests were told that Cinderella's Coach which was on its way to our party with the golden ragon's eggs was missing and we needed to find it.  The princess and knights ran to find the Cinderella's coach climbing structure in Fairytale Town and inside were eggs that I had spray painted gold and underneath (b/c I couldn't fit them inside) were ring pops which everyone LOVED. 

Next the kids were told by Queen Jennifer (and yes I was dressed as a Queen with a tiara and jewels) that a dragon had stolen King McGregor's gold coins and was last seen flying to roost atop of shoe within which lived a woman who had so many children she didn't know what to do!  The kids ran to find the Old Women's Shoe slide and when one of the knights slid down, the basket of gold foil covered chocolate coins (Oriental Trading Co) flew down the slide as well and each guest was allowed to take 4 coins for their loot bag.  Now the guests were told that with wands and swords at the ready they sould explore our fair kingdom until the noon hour when we would gather in Sherwood Forest for the royal feast and celebration.  We dined on Roundtable pizza and the Royal Grandmother cut up fruit, put it on mini plastics swords and then stuck it into a pineapple. 

The cake was a castle cake decorated with the Lego Knights from the Castle of Morcia set. I made two 16x20 sheets.  I put them in the refrigerator and then I cut a rectangular hole in the middle of one and placed it on top of the other.  With the cake that was cut out I cut it into four pieces and placed those at the corners to make the turrets. On top of each corner square I put an upside down sugar ice cream cone and sticking out of the end of the cone was a very long candle with a felt flag glued to it with a gold hawk on the flag. There were four turrets and four candle flags because it was a fourth birthday.  The cake was all frosted white and then mini marshmallows were placed on the edges for the castle look.  The drawbridge was made out of graham crackers and there was a blue frosting moat around the entire cake. 

This was a very fun party.  All the kids really got into the theme.  I heard from some of the Moms that the knights were still wearing their costumes days later.  After all of my hard work, the glowing smile on my son's face was all the thanks I needed.  At the party several people asked my mother if I was a professional party planner and if they could hire me . . . !?