Princess & Knights 4yr - Pass the Frog

Princess and Knights Royal Getogether for a 4 year old girl, but could be used for girls and boys from 4-6 years old.  For my daughters 4th birthday she wanted to be a princess and our neighborhood has lots of boys too, so I did a princess and knights party for her. 

Invitations: Scrolls that said Royal Princesses and Noble Knights of Monroe, the fair princess Julielle of Monroe requests your presence at a party commemorating her 4th birthday.  The party will start an hour before the high sun (11am) and will come to a close 2 turns of the sun dail after the high sun (2pm).    Her party was on Halloween day so I also said that the party was ending so that the Princess could prepare for the all important collection of the candy ceremony later in the evening. 

Decorations:  I used real tableclothes and cheap plastic goblets.  I put candles and whole pumpkins in the center of the table.  I used gold plastic plates, napkins and silver plastic utensils for the table.  I set the whole table up as if it was a fancy royal table, not a children's party.  I then hung netting across the ceiling over the table to make it look even more elegant.  In my livingroom I hung banners and plastic flags and I criss crossed cheap white Christmas lights on the ceiling so that the livingroom looked like a palace ballroom.  My daughter has a castle bed so I took the headboard from it and set it up in the livingroom so that pictures could be taken in front of it. (I cardboard or posterboard castle would have been great too!) 

Costumes: I made all the girls princess costumes.  The cost each was only 4 dollars. I bought cheap crenaline(netted material) at Walmart for 67 cents a yard and then used thin ribbon.  I strung the ribbon through the top holes in the crenaline and then left extra so that the girls could tie it around there waists.  I took floral wire and wrapped it in slightly wider ribbon for the headpieces.  Then on the back of the headpiece I wrapped 3 small fake flowers and a little of the extra crenaline from the dresses.  I bought cheap men's tank undershirts from the dollar store here and then dyed them a color to match the crenaline.  I had them put the shirts on first(since they were men's, there were long enough to go under the crenaline too!!.  For the boys I only spent $2.50 each, I bought cheap bath towels and cut a whole out for the heads.  I then used no sew fabric binding to put ribbon on the front's of the towels in the shape of crosses(just use one big piece and one small piece and cross them). I then used some of the thin ribbon from the girls costumes to make ties on the sides of the towels.  I punch a hole in the towels and just tied a ribbon on each side. Then I took heavy duty paper plates and used poster paint to paint them to match the towels.  I took pipe cleaners and made crosses for the front of the "shields" out of them.  I punched holes in the side of the shields and put a piece of ribbon across the back of the shield so the boys could hold onto them. 

Food:  I served royal pizza and Sprite in the goblets (we pretended it was champagne and toasted the birthday girl).  Instead of Cake I made cupcakes.  For the girls, I bought dollar store small plastic dolls and stuck them(without clothes) into unfrosted cupcakes with no wrappers on them.  Then I put frosted the cupcakes to look like dresses and added a little frosting to the top front of the doll.  The looked like they were dressed in fancy strapless gowns when I was done.  I dyed the frosting purple before I used it.  For the boys, I made cupcakes with no wrappers and frosted them in a grey frosting.  Then a took tinfoil and bent it into sword shapes.  I put one sword into each grey cupcake.  It looked like the Sword in the Stone. 

Here's how the party went:  1) Arrive and get "dressed" for the occasion, get picture taken in front of the "castle".  (15 minutes)  2) Make Sugar Cube Castles (20 minutes)     Take Sugar Cubes and dip them in vanilla frosting, then stack them up like blocks to look like a castle.  Use gumdrops to decorate your castle.  3) Pin the Fire on the Dragon (10 minutes)      I drew a dragon on a green piece of poster board and then cut out pieces of fire out of orange construction paper.  The kids had to try and put the fire on the mouth.  4) Dig for the King's treasure in the rice (15 minutes)     I put uncooked rice in a big bin and also put hersey kisses in there.  I mixed it all up and then the kids had to dig around in it for the silver treasure (candy).  5) Pizza Feast at the fancy royal diningroom ( 15 minutes)  6) Hear the story of the Dragon Egg (10 minutes)     

I made up a simple story and got pictures from Clip Art to illustrate it.  The story basically was that Princess Julielle was loved by everyone, especially the princesses and knights of the kingdom.  The only one that didn't love her was the evil witch.  The evil witch was jealous because everyone hated her so she splashed Princess Julielle (my daughter's name) with a potion that made Princess Julielle invisible.  The only way to break the spell was to bring the Princess magic dragon eggs.  The dragon didn't like to share his eggs so he always hid them.  Since the knights and princesses loved Princess Julielle so much, they went on a quest for the dragon's eggs.  They looked everywhere and then finally found them.  They brought them to the princess and she was cured.  She was so happy she threw them all a big party to celebrate.  (I used a few different words and stuff to make it sound better, but that is the basic story.)  7) Find the Dragon's Eggs (15 minutes)       I dyed hard boiled eggs blue and hid them outside.  After the story the kids were all excited to find dragon's eggs.  I told them they had to find all of the dragon's eggs to save Princess Julielle.  8) Save the Damsels in Distress (15 minutes)    Once all the eggs were found I said, "Oh no, now the dragon is very mad at us for taking all of his eggs."  At this time, my boyfriend came and "captures" all the princesses because he was mad about the eggs.  I had him in a green shirt and a green knit hat with green streamers hanging off of it.  The princesses had to stay on one side of him captures, while all the knights stayed on the other side.  The knights had to try and get past the dragon and grab the princesses and bring them over to safety.  Once all the princesses were saved I let the kids all tackle the "dragon".  9) Make Royal Door Hangers (15 minutes)     I cut out foamboard door hangers and had the kids glue different foam shapes on them.  I told them to hang them on their bedroom doors because little knights and princesses needed there rest and could not be disturbed at home.  10) Musical Thrones(same as musical chairs) (15 minutes)  11) Pass the frog (10 minutes)     I got a small stuffed frog at the dollar store.  I told the kids that in all the stories of princesses and frogs, the princess kisses the frog and he becomes a prince, but something was wrong with our frog and he wouldn't turn into a prince no matter what I did. 

Since we didn't want a boring old frog we had to pass it away as quick as we could.  I then playe dmusic and kept stopping it.  Everytime I stopped the music the person with the frog was out.  So they wouldn't feel bad, the person that was out got to start and stop the music the next round.  12) Find the King's treasure in the Magic Balloons (10 minutes)     I put little plastic rings in balloons and blew them up.  I told the kids that a magic spell had been placed on the rings and that they were stuck inside a magic bubble.  The kids had to break (pop) the spell to get the ring.  13) Cupcakes and Toast our Honored Princess ( 15 minutes)  14) Royal Ball - be careful of the midnight freeze (15 minutes)     I played music in the ballroom and everytime the music stopped all of the kids had to freeze.  Originally I was going to make whoever didn't freeze be out, but the kids were all having such a blast that no one every got out.  This was a great last game to play because it just continued with less and less children until everyone was picked up. 

All the kids got to take home there dolls (I had put the clothes in the goody bags ahead of time), there goblets, and there costumes.  I also put a few small trinkets, stickets and candy in gold bags for the goody bags.  This party took a lot of planning but everyone said it was the most fun and organized party they had ever been to.  Actually, one of my neighbors begged me to share it with you all so that it would make someone else's life easier when planning a royal party.