Positive Princess Traits -6yr- Red Carpet Entry

INVITATIONS I made the invitations myself on our home computer.  They were 5x7 sheets of card stock printed with a pink background and a Royal looking font.  They said, Hear Ye! Hear Ye!  Her Royal Highness, Princess Natalie of the Kingdom of (last name) requests your presence at the Royal celebration of the sixth year of her birth on (Date) from (Time) at her castle home located at (Address).  This is a royal celebration not to be missed!  We sincerely hope you can join us.  Please come in your finest royal attire or, if needed, you can browse through Princess Natale's private wardrobe.  Crowns and wands will be provided.  Be prepared for a magical time. 

I found a clip art of a princess and edited it to have the same color hair as my daughter.  I printed it on the same cardstock and the same pink background as the invitation.  Then I out the princess out and used double sided foam tape to stick her onto the invitations so that she popped off of the page a little bit and gave the invitations a bit of depth.   The envelopes I also printed with the girls names to read...Princess Kimberly of (Last Name) in the same royal font.  The invitations we very well received. 

DECORATIONS The party was held mostly outside so most of our decorations were also outside.  A red carpet (red plastic tablecloth cut in half lengthwise and taped together) was setup leading guests from the front of the house into the backyard.  There was a 4ft cutout of Belle on the garage and balloons to draw people's attention away from the front door and to the side gate.  Balloons were all over the back yard.  We have a covered patio that was transformed into a ballroom with tons of streamers and ribbon.  Another 4ft cutout of Belle was hanging on the wall with Natalie's princess tent moved out of the playroom for the afternoon.  The gift bags were in the tent so the girls could go find them when they arrived. 

ACTIVITIES When the girls arrived they were given their gift bag a crown and wand to decorate.  We got some foam tiaras from Oriental Trading along with some princess stickers and jewels.  I made sure to get the self stick stickers and jewels so there would be no drying time on the crown.  There were also markers available to decorate the crowns.  Wands were decorated with multiple colors of curling ribbon.  Boys were given a chance to also decorate their shields with jewels and markers.  I should have checked that the markers would write on silver spray paint which they didn't but none of the boys seemed to care since they were busy sword fighting outside instead of decorating anyway. 

Next the princess and knights were announced by the king.  I got a purple plastic stadium horn and made a royal drapery for it.  I made certain that my husband knew each child's name before we gathered the children inside.  One by one he announced them by their royal name "Princess Kayla".  There was a crowd of moms outside to applaud the children as they came out into the ballroom.  Each child was given a noise maker so they could help applaud the other kids too.  A few children did not want to be announced and that was fine.  The birthday girl was announced last to thundering applause and noise makers.   Then we took a group photo in front of the play castle.  The king went in and printed a bunch of pictures then put them into some plush heart shaped frames that I bought at the Dollar Store the kids were given these as they left. 

GAMES I don't like the idea of a passive princess so I wanted to reinforce the positive aspects of being a princess to my daughter.  We decided that a princess is smart brave polite and likes music.  Each game was to highlight a certain trait.   First I announced that all royal children are smart so we would go on a scavenger hunt to find the royal cake.  We had hidden several clues around the house (inside front yard and back yard).  Each clue led to the next and finally to the cake which was found on the kitchen table.  The game was a huge success and they were so excited when they solved a clue and ran off in a swarm to find the next one.  A poet friend of mine wrote the clues that would make the kids think but not frustrate them.  It was perfect. 

Next we decided that all royal children like music (really this was just an excuse for me to play this game that I really wanted to include).  We did a modified cake-walk.  I printed a bunch of pictures of Disney Princesses and laid them in a circle in the ballroom.  When the music started they walked in a circle.  When the music stopped I drew three names out of a hat and whoever was standing on that picture got a small piece of candy.  We played this game till we were bored and everyone had won a few times.  At the end I was rigging the game to make sure everyone won a fair number of times.  Third was to prove how brave the princesses and knights were.  So we went off to slay the dragon (pinata).   They were all excited to be able to whack the dragon.  Everyone got two turns and then the king finished off the dragon.   Lastly we talked about how polite princesses are and asked the children to be very polite to each other as they went inside to have a snack. 

COSTUMES Girls were asked to come in their favorite princess dress.  We provided the crown and wand.  Anyone who needed a princess gown was given the opportunity to look through my daughter's collection.  No one needed to but I didn't want anyone to not come because they didn't have a princess dress or have to buy one just for the occasion.   Boys were asked to come dressed as knights but I offered to make them a knight tunic if they wanted…it was just a piece of felt with a hole cut for the head and a mid evil emblem on the front with ties holding it closed at the side and fringe on the bottom.  Very easy but cute.  We also made shields for the boys out of cardboard spray painted silver with a gothic cross on the front.  Boys also were given swords when they arrived.  There were not many boys and they were very well behaved with their swords. 

SNACKS Snacks were kept to a minimum since the party was intentionally not scheduled during a meal period.  We served cream cheese and jelly sandwiches on white bread cut in the shape of a crown and a small fruit skewer.  Pink punch was also served. 

CAKE I was so excited to make Natalie a princess birthday cake using a Barbie and the cake as the dress of her skirt.  I baked the top half of the cake in the Pampered Chef large Batter bowl and then used another cake mix to make two more 9 inch round cakes.   Finally I stacked them on top of each other and frosted the cake to looks like a princess skirt.  I used a small decorating tip to put a frosting bodice onto the doll.  The final product looked pretty good but I'm glad I made a test cake (or two) as I didn't want my first try to be for the big day.  One tip I learned is to not used the egg white only recipe as the cake was too light to support all the other layers.  Natalie choose the colors (pink and purple) as she informed me these are the most princessey colors. 

FAVORS In their goody bags the girls were given a necklace bracelet fake red lips a glow bracelet several butterfly hair clips a ring and some star shaped sunglasses.  The boys were a little harder to coordinate with a princess theme so most of their stuff didn't really go with the theme but was more stuff they would actually like to play with.  They also got a glow bracelet and sunglasses but also got a squirt gun small kaleidoscope and a twisty straw.  We gave out the bags when they children arrived so that they could wear some of the items during the party.  Also so they would have some place to put the candy they would win in the princess walk game and from the pinata. 

As each child left we gave them a plush heart frame with a copy of the group picture that had been taken earlier that day.  The king had to take a break from the party fun to put those together for us earlier in the day.  These were very well received."