Fairy Tale Princess 3yr - Decorate Wands

Invitation:  Everything for this party was in purple and pink, our little princess's favorite colors.  I found clip art of a pretty mirror, and blew it up to fill an entire 8.5x11 sheet.  This template was used for the invitation and for the clues in the treasure hunt below.  On the invitation was the poem "Mirror, mirror on the wall,/ Who will come to Katie's Ball?/ Princesses and princes fair,/ Clad in finest royal wear,/ Jester, sorcerer, fairy queen, / All to fete our sweet colleen. /  On this birthday, count of three,/ Join us for the mirth and glee!"  The invitation then read "King Craig & Queen Paige Request the Honour of Your Presence in Celebration of The Third Birthday of Princess Kate of Smith" followed by logistics and the line "Royal dress optional."  Invitations were addressed to "Princess Rebecca," "Prince Caleb," etc.  Place: 

We held the party at Miss Jamie's House in Tucker, Georgia.  It's a home that's been renovated as a child's play place.  There's a playhouse room, complete with a front porch; a stage with curtains and dress-up clothes; a room with seasonal activities (snowball fights, Olympic events); and a room with a sailing ship that was converted into a space ship when we were there for the party.  There's also a separate party room (that was decorated in pink and purple), and other activities scattered throughout.  On the playground is a large castle for climbing.  Activities:  As guests arrived, most in their fanciest dress-up clothes (adults included), they could enjoy free play at Miss Jamie's House or visit several stations we had set up.  In one room, my mother and sister had borrowed costumes from the high school drama department and were dressed as fairy godmothers.  They painted faces and fingernails and passed out crowns.    In another room, I helped the children make magic wands. 

Before the party, I cut dowels to the length of chopsticks, stuck styrofoam balls on top, and spraypainted them with gold metallic spray paint.  At the party, the children decorated them with glitter, sequins, and ribbon.  In the room with the stage, I had a CD playing of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Sleeping Beauty Suite, and Swan Lake, for any princesses or princes who felt like dancing.  As the birthday girl reached each of these stations, she was given a gift to open.  Each gift was a new book.  With this party, I hoped to introduce the children to some classic princess stories, old and new, that they had not seen in movies before…stories that depicted princesses as sometimes silly, sometimes selfish, sometimes brave and noble.  Her favorites were "The Princess and the Pea" and "The Princess Knight."  When the children had had time to enjoy the play areas and the different stations, we started games.  The first was the Cinderella Shoe Scramble.  Each child removed one shoe, piled it with the other guests' one shoe, and then lined up on the opposite side of the room.  The first person to run to the pile, find their shoe, and get it back on won a prize.  Next was the "Kiss the Frog" game.  I read the children the story of the Princess and the Gold Ball, in which she kisses a frog and he becomes a prince.  I made a Frog Prince and red lips from poster board, and then children took turns being blindfolded and pinning their "kiss" on the frog.  The closest to the frog's lips won a prize.  After this, I invited the children to the party room for birthday cake.  When they arrived, they found a pink or purple felt square laying on each chair.  Under one of the felt squares was a prize, and after the lucky guest sat on it and revealed what was hidden to the other guests, I told them the story of the Princess and the Pea. 

The birthday girl had her own throne for the royal feast, an old folding chair from a card table set that had been spray painted gold and decorated with jewels, ribbons, her name, and a regal purple pillow for the seat.  The feast consisted of petit fours, heart-shaped sandwiches, strawberries, bite size ice cream bars, and bite size crackers served in cut glass platters and bowls.  At each child's place was also a nut cup filled with pastel jelly beans and M&Ms (on sale from Easter, which was the week before the party.) 

As the children were finishing their snacks, my sister appeared, dressed as a witch.  She was angry that she had not been invited to the party, and declared she would cast an evil spell on the proceedings.  She read from her Book of Magic Spells:  "Eye of Newt and Eggs of Pheasants/Take Away These Birthday Presents/ Hide them here, Hide them there, / You won't find them anywhere! / 'Til you find five kisses sweet / You won't undo my magic feat. / So go and search, ye wench and knave, / For a kiss adrift upon a wave!"  While she was mesmerizing the children, her evil henchmen (my husband and father) moved the old wooden trunk where the guests had left their gifts and hid it in the castle outside on the playground.  After hearing the spell, the children went to look for the "kiss adrift upon a wave."  Next to the sink in the craft room they found a huge set of red lips (chocolate wrapped in red foil, purchased at a party store) and their next clue.  As they unlocked each clue, they would find another set of chocolate lips and another clue, with the last one leading them to the gifts.  Some of the clues included:  "Sleeping Beauty laid her head / On a soft and downy feather bed / 'Twas the Prince's Loving Kiss / That Awakened The Sweet Miss."  (bed in playhouse)  "Belle always had her head in a book / Reading adventurous tales / With her wit and her warm heart / She broke the beastly spells."  (bookshelf)  "Jasmine & Aladdin / Flew Their Magic Carpet Far / Across the Sands of Arabia / Under the Midnight Star."  (sandbox)  After opening the gifts, seated upon her throne, the birthday girl passed out favors in purple net drawstring bags purchased in the bridal section of the local craft store.  Favors included a unicorn with long hair and a comb, jewels (bought at a craft store in the floral department), jewelry for the girls and frogs for the boys, and princess fruit snacks.  My children's friends were asking for weeks after what happened to the fairy godmothers and the wicked witch who came to Katie's party, and my children are still going around the house saying, "Hide them here, hide them there, you won't find them anywhere!"  It was a magical day.