Three Musketeers Party 6yr

My daughter requested a Barbie and the Three Musketeers" Party.  I love planning parties and this one was definitely a challenge.    Invitation:  For invites I scanned a picture from one of the story books and uploaded it to an invitation site chose a plain pink background and wrote "All for one and one for all"  Musketeer training will be held in honor of ___ 6th birthday. and then the details. They came out beautiful and it was no more expensive than if I purchased the packages of character invites at the store.  As an alternative I thought you could also color copy a photo and paste it onto colored card stock and write the details on the back.  Decorations.  You can only get the character products in the UK so for plates etc I just used a pink and gold theme.  Pink table cloth Gold large plates with pink medium size plates on top (this was for easy clean up because they were also eating a snack before pizza so we just took the first plate off and the second was still there ready for pizza.  Plus it made the table look colorful.  Gold glitter in the middle and for a centerpiece we used two of the pink "musketeer" hats with two fencing swords crossed in front of them and pink and gold balloons around the room.  Activities and Games:  First the kids sat down and had a snack (it was after school) and while they did I read them a very quick version of the story and played them one scene from the movie where the girls go to the secret training room and train to be Mustkeeers.  Then I asked the kids if they wanted to start their training.  We went outside and I started to train but then asked where all their weapons were?  When they said they didn't have any I asked if they had money to buy them because we had a store.  When they said they had no money I sent them on a scavenger hunt to find jewels hidden in the yard so they could go to the "store" and buy their weapons.   I added a challenge to the scavenger hunt by saying the each had to find four jewels.  Once they found them I said they had to have one of each color (there was green blue red and purple) so they had to trade until everyone had the colors right (I counted out the jewels exactly so the trading would work out)...they LOVED the trading element to it and it extended the activity for a bit longer which was nice.  For the store I purchased fans ribbon wants and fencing swords online at Rhode Island Novelty  (these were the weapons used by Barbie's three musketeers).  Then we had "training" with each item.  To train with the swords I made an obstacle course with about 12 balloons and every time they passed a balloon they had to hit it with their sword.  For the fans all the girls stood around a table and I put ping pong balls on the table and they had to use their fans to keep the ball from falling.  For the ribbon wands I played dance music and taught them a short dance routine then let them each choose a move for everyone else to follow sort of like a simon says.  They LOVED it!  Costumes.  After training we made them official Musketeers by putting on each girl a Musketeer cape and hat. For the hats I bought pink cowboy hats and glued white feathers to them to make them look like Musketeer hats.  and I made cheap capes with remnant pink fabric and a gold ribbon glued to the top with stitching glue to tie it around their neck (No Sewing required!). They looked SO CUTE with their swords and outfits for the group party picture!  I took a group picture and used this to send with the thank you notes.   Party Snacks/Food.  The food was fairly standard fair.  Barbie gummies watermelon and cheezits for afterschool snack.  PIzza for dinner and then a cake with a picture from the book scanned on the top (store bought).     Party Favors.  For party favors the girls took home their hats capes and a fan ribbon wand and sword.  We also did small party favor bags with candy and a few other small items.  It was a HUGE hit and we all had a blast!"