Princess Party 4yr - Sugar Cube Castles

This party was for my daughter's 4th birthday and we did a Princess Party. It required a lot of preparation but was the most fun, and the best party we ever had.  After it was over, my daughter told me she had the time of her life!!!! Here are all the activities we did:

The invitations were done in a scroll design that read: Hear Ye, Hear Ye, By order of the King and Queen:  Princess (Guest name) is cordially invited to the (Our last name) Castle to celebrate Princess (our daughter's name) 4th birthday!!! The royal celebration will begin at 2:00 in the afternoon on the 12th of August 2003. The king asked that you come dressed as your favorite princess in your most royal attire. Upon your carriage's arrival, princesses will be greeted with royal wands and gems.  Princes will be given royal swords for bravery. The royal cook has prepared a feast of goodies for the celebration. There shall also be festivities including a royal ball, games, crafts and fun for all.  The excitement will heighten during the defeat of the royal pinata Have your carriage arrive for you at 4:30 in the afternoon when the celebration commences. Please RSVP with the Queen Mom at (phone#) if you plan to attend this royal gala  The castle needs to plan for your arrival.  This is a magical celebration not to be missed! (I purchased scrapbook scroll paper from a local craft store and printed each invitation with each childs personalized name and then rolled them up with a special seal and fancy ribbon and my daughter and I hand-delivered each one.  She only had 12 guests total and some were siblings from the same family.

On the day of the party: First, my husband used sidewalk chalk to draw all the Princesses up the driveway: Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and he wrote Welcome to the Enchanted Kingdom and Enter the Castle here.  We also had pink balloons at the end of the driveway on both sides tied to party stakes so it was very festive as they walked up the pathway to the house.  A princess CD was playing outside as the guests arrived.  On the front door we had a scroll sign that read:  The (Your name)Castle welcomes you to Princess (my daughter's name)4th birthday.  Upon arrival, each princess was given a wand and a bracelet The princes were given a sword.(We only had one prince.) I had crayons and coloring pages of all the princesses and the dwarfs from Snow White, the mice (Jaq & Gus) from Cinderella on the kitchen table for all the kids to color while we waited for everyone to arrive. The Royal Ball:  After everyone arrived we had the parents go out onto the deck and wait and I had all the princesses and 1 prince line up in the kitchen and I spread a large red felt runner on the deck "our red carpet" ..and one of the older children made a trumpet noise and then I announced each princess and they walked on the red runner under a canopy that was decorated with balloons. When everyone was announced we turned on the princess music and danced "our royal ball." 

Next, we played the Cinderella Matching Slipper game. The children were given a colored picture of a glass slipper and were given instructions to go into the garden to find the matching glass slipper. And then once they retrieved the match they would receive a prize. (A princess snack). 

THEN, we made SUGAR CUBE CASTLES:   The children sat at a table and were each given a disposable tray and were given instructions on how to make a castle out of sugar cubes..I had a model of one I had made the night before so they could see the finished product The trick is to spread the icing down first and the lay the first layer of sugar cubes. And then for each remaining layer to dip the cubes in the icing when placing them down and then the last row were the gumdrops. I had extra icing tubs down on the table and food coloring for the kids to decide the filling color that they wanted for the layers.  They had a great time with this and it was very age appropriate for 4-6year olds.  When the castles were completed we admired everyones unique design/color. I also had princess snacks if they wanted to decorate their castles with them. This was an awesome activity.  It did take up a bit of time because the kids really put a lot of effort into it.

Next, we did a HUNT FOR JEWELS IN ARIEL'S TREASURE COVE:   I had a purple baby pool filled with blown up pink balloons and under the balloons I had hidden "treasures" - small plastic containers that were filled with self-adhesive jewels, stickers, and special stick on hearts, etc. They were wrapped in tin foil  The kids dug for their treasure at the same time and then they had to carry their treasure inside for the next activity where we decorated princess hats/crowns.   The children all followed me inside and all the hats were set up with extra materials for the kids to

DECORATE PRINCESS HATS/ CROWNS:  I had premade the girls hats using pink posterboard and special see through shimmery ribbon that I hole punched each hat and attached. I tested one on my daughter to make sure the ribbon was long enough to easily tie under her chin. The kids were told to unwrap their treasure and then I showed them the model hat and crown that I had decorated and they worked diligently on this.  The hats were so beautiful. I had premade labels and gave each parent one with their child's name so the hats would not get mixed up.  Also, we only had one prince and for the crown, I used gold posterboard and traced a crown design and he decorated it just like the girls with jewels, stickers, etc..

The next activity we played, PIN THE HEART ON THE PRINCESS:  I used a poster from one of my daughters coloring books with three princesses and each child had a turn trying to stick a heart on one of the princesses.  I had cut the hearts out of construction paper and prepasted masking tape on the back. After the game was over, I asked the kids if they enjoyed dressing up in costumes and emphatically they all said yes..I told them even though it was fun dressing up. That even when the costumes came off they are still beautiful princesses/ princes to their parents/families. AND it's what's inside the heart that's more important than what is outside. Everyone agreed even at the tender age of 4-6!!!!! 

Next, all the kids went into the ROYAL DINING ROOM: I had decorated with pearls, and cut out single red roses on the windows and pink streamers and flowers on the wall to simulate Belle's Garden.  Each chair had a tulle bow on it and each child had a place card that I had cut out a star from pink posterboard and used a silver marker to highlight the outside and I wrote their name in silver and I attached a princess face next to each name (I tried to remember each child's favorite).  The tablecloth was silver and the plates, napkins and silverware was all pink.  Each place setting had a doilie on top of their place with a glass slipper(that I had bought in the wedding section of the craft store) Each child took their's home with them as well.  Also each child had a plastic champagne glass that I had decorated with adhesive hearts. 

THE ROYAL TOAST:  I gave each child a small amount of Raspberry Ginger Ale and I had all the friends raise their glasses and say Happy Birthday to my daughter.  We did it a couple of times because the camera was not ready.  Next we served the Castle Cake we had made using two 9x13 pan and three mini loaf pans.  My husband fashioned a moat and a drawbridge with flags and we used icecream sugarcone for the turrets, and gumdrops all around the castle. It was awesome and all the kids loved it. (It was hard to cut into it, it looked so nice.)  Next, we had all the kids come into the living room and I read the story called FLOUNDER'S GIFT about the best present of all…..the kids loved it then we opened presents and then did the ROYAL PRINCESS PINATA.

I gave each child their GOODIE BAGS I had made Princess coloring books for the kids with fabric on the outside and then took them to have a comb binding (about a dollar per book) put in and with letters and puffy paint had put Princess (child's first name) on the outside and the inside was about 25 princess characters and some activity sheets to color and complete. Plus, I had personally written a note to each of my daughters friends on the inside color thanking them for sharing her special day with her.  Also each child received in their goodie bag crayons, a princess snack and a baby food jar that I had put glitter in that I labeled "Fairy Princess Dust" and I decorated the top with pink fabric, tulle and a bow with a note attached (I did on the computer) that said must only be sprinkled outside for magic to happen.   

Everone was so amazed and impressed with this party....all the Moms thanked me for working so hard and everything ran very smoothly....This party was done in August and there was an impending Thunderstorm so I had to change the order of the activities at the last minute so we could do the Sugar cube castle outside since they were a bit messy.....and have wipes handy to clean lots of fingers.......But, i had worked so hard planning out every detail ahead of time.....that when the kids were here we just kept them very busy.  One Mom even sent me a Thank you note for doing such a nice party.  My daughter still talks about this party......I also dressed up too, as the Fairy Godmother and my eight month old son was a prince and my daughter was Cinderella.  This was an awesome party.....Hope you got some great ideas!!!!!Enjoy!!!