Narnia Party -5yr- Decorate Crowns Craft

INVITATION I typed the invitation and printed it on white paper.  We then cut it out roughly and stained the paper with dark tea bags so that it looked old and worn.  We rolled them up and tied them with red ribbon so they looked like scrolls.  The invitation read;  Hear Ye! Hear Ye!  Calling all Princesses, Princes and Knights! The brave and good Prince Caspian (aka [my Child]) Will be turning 5 years old. The evil King Miraz wants to stop the celebration. So, the lion Aslan needs your help to save the world of Narnia. Please enter through the wardrobe at [Address] From 3:30 to 5:00 On Saturday. Please leave your earthly weapons at home as they will be useless in Narnia.  But come with brave and strong hearts and minds to save Narnia and to celebrate Prince Caspian's life! 

DECORATION  The party was in our backyard.  At the gate to our backyard from our driveway, where the guests would arrive, I hung a banner made on butcher paper.  It said Narnia. Please enter through the wardrobe.  I wrote the word Narnia in a similar form to that in the movie poster.  Next to the banner, over the entrance, we strapped a pole and hung coats.  The children had to walk through the coats to enter the backyard.  Once in the backyard, they saw a tall floor lamp for the lampost with cottony snow around it on the ground.  On my children's fort, we made royal banners using construction paper so that it looked like a castle. 

ACTIVITIES/GAMES The children played in the castle until all the children arrived.  Our first activity was to make crowns.  I cut yellow poster board into crowns.  The kids then glued plastic jewels from the craft store to their crowns and colored them how they please.  We then taped the crowns to the proper size to fit their heads.    As they were finishing their crowns, Father Christmas arrived bearing gifts (see FAVORS below).  In the invitation we asked the children not to bring their own swords, etc., so Father Christmas brought them all a sword with which to save Narnia.  Their first task to save Narnia was to rescue the fauns and centaurs that the White Witch had frozen. 

The children entered the garage where there were multi-colored balloons with paper cut-outs of fauns and centaurs inside.  Each child was assigned a color and was to pop his/her balloons to save the creatures.  Next we were to go on a mission to find lost treasure.  We went through the garage to the front yard.  Each child was to follow a string in the same color as their balloon.  The strings weaved through the front yard like a maze.  At the end of each child's string was their very own treasure (see FAVORS below).  After cake and presents the children played castle with their new swords. 

COSTUMES The birthday boy wore his own Prince Caspian costume.  His other brothers dressed as Peter and Edmund from the book.  We found knights helmets and breastplates at the dollar store.  They combined those with their own clothes to make their own costumes for Peter and Edmund.  My baby wore a baby-size lion costume for Aslan.  My husband borrowed a Santa suit to be Father Christmas.  I braided my hair and borrowed from my closet to create a Lucy costume.  The other children came dressed as princes, princesses and knights and we had an extra lion costume for them to take turns wearing in order to be Aslan. 

CAKE I made a large square cake and a small square cake.  The smaller one I cut into four squares and place on the four corners of the larger square.  Per my son's request I iced the cake in a golden color.  We used M&M's to edge the cake.  I put ice cream cones upside down on all four corners.  I cut small triangles out of red paper and attached them to toothpicks and stood the toothpicks on top of each cone.  We then used our clean Narnia action figures to decorate our castle cake.

 FAVORS Each child took home their crown.  Father Christmas brought them each a sword.  We found foam water swords on clearance at the discount store at the end of the summer.  We took the foam part and discarded the rest.  I used cardboard to form the cross part of the handle.  I covered the entire thing with duct tape to make one silver soft sword.  I then hot-glued large plastic jewels from the craft store to the hilt of each sword.  At the end of the maze game, each child found their own goody.  The boys each found a shield from the dollar store.  The girls found a baggie with plastic jewelry.