As a single mother with seven children, a big party was never an option. This year, my daughter turned 7. Barbie, Princess and the Pauper is her favorite movie. She begged me to have a theme party. How could I say no? We made invitations on the computer and added a picture from Barbie, Princess and the Pauper. "The King and Queen request the honour of your presence at a Royal Birthday Party for Queen Taylor-Rae" For the entrance to the party, I collected large refridgerator, stove and water heater boxes from a department store. (I requested them in advance so we would have enough) I put them together to look like a castle and painted them in the movie colors; pink, lavender and powder blue. The granparents have a white pony and each little princess rode into the party area on horseback. (not a luxury most people would have, but boy did it go over well!) The party area was surrounded by a garden of silk flowers from the dollar store and under the trees. From the trees hung lots of handmade paper hearts, flowers, garland and the picture from the DVD cover I scanned in my computer and printed larger. A long table, covered by an old white table cloth I found at the thrift store, had pink place settings for each child and "crystal" (plastic) wine glasses for drinks. I purchased at a party store, little frosted "glass slippers" from the bridal section and used a lavender paint pen to write each childs' name, e.g. Prince Ryan or Princess Kelsey. On each place setting was a foam tiara from Wal-Mart. The kit comes with other foam punch outs for decorations and elastics to attach to the tiara to hold on their heads. Boys had crowns I made from foam sheets and modeled after a Burger King crown. The foam decorations, glitter and glitter glue pens I also got at Wal-Mart were in "crystal" bowls throught the table. That led the children to their first craft project: decorating their crowns or tiaras. As they were finished, they were able to proceed through the dressing up process. My older children each took care of a station; make-up (including mustaches if the boys wished), nail polish, jewelery (plastic necklaces, rings, stick on earrings, and bracelets the kids could make from pipe cleaners and large beads, face painting and dress up clothes, for both boys and girls, I've collected over the years. The children played a bit while the others finished, then onto a party game; Kiss the Frog. In the spirit of Pin the tail on the Donkey, my daughter drew a large frog copied from one of the foam cut outs) on a piece of poster board and a bunch of lips for the girls and crowns for the boys to pin on his head. This was fun, and each child received a hand made wand made from a dowel spray painted gold with a foam star on the top, a feather on it for the boys, and ribbons on it for the girls. We took a picture with a digital camera of each child and of the group. Grandma went inside to print them out. While all this was happening, the "castle staff" (all dressed appropriately) cleared the table of scraps and such, and placed finger sandwiches shaped like hearts, stars and circles, a fruit cup served in a "crystal" fruit bowl and sparkling apple cider to drink. From there, they went to another table to make picture frames. Cardboard matting is very inexpensive. Using leftover glitter, glitter pens, ribbons, confetti and foam cut outs, each child decorated their own frame. Once dried, the picture of each child was taped to the back of the frame and the group photo was placed in the front of a photo album for the Birthday Girl. Onto the pinata. I couldn't find a Princess and the Pauper pinata, so I got one with a white cat. Each child was given a small paper bag decorated with Princess and the Pauper stickers to put their prizes in. A mould cake shaped like a castle in pink, lavender and powder blue was placed in the middle of the table (for the "staff") and each child received a cupcake with a candle. Each child got to blow out their own candle. While presents were being opened, the "staff" cleared the table and placed the "glass slippers" filled with confetti, their wands, small bridal bubbles with the birthday girl's name and date of the party written on the ribbons. In the center was a pink or blue drawstring bag from Wal-Mart, again, filled with candy necklaces, ring-pops and little gumballs that look like gems. Each child was given their picture in the frame to take home. It was the most perfect party ever!