Princess Birthday Party -9yr- Blessing Bags

Invitations: We sent out a scroll saying You are hereby invited to join Princess Roo at the Princess Academy our address on date where we will learn that a Princess is Sharing & Caring Brave and Well Mannered. Please grace us with your presence at time and date. (I also had a line at the bottom letting parents know that it was a dress up party)   

Activities: When the princesses arrived I greeted each one at the door dressed as Princess Sita. They were then taken to the kitchen where I told them that the first rule of being a princess is that she is Sharing & Caring. So each child decorated a pair of socks for a homeless person and a ziploc bag. After they decorated both they put the socks in the bag and then went to my kitchen counter where we had two stations set up with food items (cup a noodle soup crackers waters gum) and toiletries (Kleenex wipes sanitizer toothpaste & brushes) and told to fill the bags. Once all the kids had done that I told them to consult their adult (every princess has good advisers) if they should hand the bag out together or give it to me to do so for them. We called it our Blessing Bags. And I was amazed that 4 of the kids immediately identified a homeless person to give their bag to.   

Once all the girls had arrived and done this we went to the Meeting Room. My Living Room was set up as our Meeting Room. Here I showed them Prince Rama's sword and told them the story of the 'Ramayana.' However this Princess Sita told them that instead of dropping her bracelets she wished she had taken Rama's sword and fought. I then lined the girls up and Luke Skywalker (my 9 yr old son) handed them each a foam sword. We took them through four basic steps (French Perry method).

Then Skywalker collected the swords up and we talked about how we run in our gowns.     We then went outside where we had an obstacle course set up. They ran through cones balanced on a balance board jumped off a ledge walked a balance beam climbed up a ladder and were handed a pair of binoculars to look for hidden swords. They then found a sword perried with Skywalker for the 'key' (pole) to the hidden treasure - a pinata.    As they finished breaking up the Pinata Princess Belle arrived. She greeted the girls and we went into the meeting room where she read them "There's a Princess in Me" and then Sita and Belle went over table manners & etiquette and we sat down to a tea party.   

Favors: Each girl took home her foam sword pinata treasure and a mirror. I had purchased mirrors from the dollar store that I personalized with a clear sticker that said "There's a Princess in Me!"   

Cake: I made a six layer vanilla & strawberry cake with whipped frosting and strawberries in between. I covered it in light pink fondant and made a gum paste tiara for the top. The sides were covered with pink & purple fondant flowers purple roses gems and at the bottom was a ribbon with a big gum paste bow. There was a tiny butterfly by the tiara and another one on the bow. My daughters specifications.    

Food: Since it was a tea party I had purple tea cups and saucers that I purchased at a garage sale and pink paper plates and plastic wine goblets. I had a three tier stand with PB sandwiches on the top turkey pinwheels with cheese & olive skewers in the middle and cranberry walnut cookies for scones. The veggies were laid out as a wreath using broccoli and then peppers cukes carrots and tomatos for effect. I had fruit skewers with grapes blueberries mini marshmallows and strawberries. The girls were given an option of pink lemonade and chocolate milk. Most of them drank both ;)   

Costumes: As Queen Sita I wore a gagra chole and fixed my hair with a veil and also wore the multitude of bracelets as Sita did. MY husband wore an Indian shirt so he looked like Rama my son refused Indian clothing to be Luke Skywalker in his karate outfit. My DD was dressed as Rapunzel. All the little girls came dressed up and we had everyone from Supergirl to Ariel. 

Thank You Notes: I printed out a photograph of each girl at the party with the words Be YOU (tiful) at the bottom and then we pasted it on card stock. Inside I hand-wrote with a calligraphy pen, A Royal Thank You to a Beautiful Princess."     

All the kids were between the ages of 4 and 6 (my DD turned 5) and I had originally wanted to hand out certificates saying they passed the Princess Training in the form of a thank you note but I figured that a diploma would be beyond their understanding.