For my daughter's 5th birthday party, she wanted a Princess Party. 21 children were invited, both girls and boys. I purchased all the Disney Princess supplies for this party.  This included, invitations, plates, cups, napkins, balloons, table covers and Princess centerpieces. Everything in pink.  I also decorated the tables with my daughters Princess Dolls. Pink Princess balloons were grouped together all around the tables. I had a CD player set up on the patio with all the Princess Songs playing during the entire party.  Upon arrival, each guest was given (for girls) a wand and tiara, (for boys) a crown and sword. We have a huge play area (as I do daycare) and the kids were allowed to freely play until all guests were present. At this point, I encouraged the parents to help themselves to the snacks (the kids are too busy playing to worry with the snacks). I had separate stations set up for the activities. We had a castle jumpolene (a gift for her birthday) with balls and the kids jumped and enjoyed playing there. I had a princess table and chairs, along with a Princess desk for use and had coloring pages printed off the computer of all the Disney Princesses and other characters. Everyone took a picture home they had colored. I had a rocking chair with a huge beach blanket laid out for story time and a princess story (birthday girls choice) was read to all the children.  While the story was being read to the children, the parents available helped hide eggs (leftover plastic easter eggs) that were filled with "jewels". The jewels were bought from the dollar store.  After the story the children were told that the dragon had laid "eggs" and they were each given a colored bag (girls-pink and boys-blue) to search for the eggs and discover the beautiful jewels.  Everyone received candy necklaces for their efforts in finding all the eggs. The birthday girl passed these out to all her guests. Lastly, we moved on to the Princess pinata and each child had the opportunity to hit the pinata and once broken filled their bags with the candy.  After all the activities were completed, it was time to sing Happy Birthday and cut the cake.  I found a princess cake on line and printed out a picture for the cake baker to copy. It had a crown and a wand on the cake and it was made to be very elegant for the Princess.  It had lots of ribbons and pearls and roses streaming on it.  I also prepared PB&J sandwiches cut out with star and heart cookie cutters.  I bought the large pretzel sticks and dipped half of the pretzel in chocolate and put sprinkles on the chocolate (to resemble a wand). I had a basket of chips and my daughter help me make star and heart shaped sugar cookies. I placed a scoop of ice cream in muffin paper and froze in the freezer until time to serve. This made ice cream time much more simplier. This was a 4-6pm party and I didn't want to have an overkill on the food.  I tried to keep this simple.  All the food was placed under a huge tent. I had a huge plastic container filled with ice (large enough to sit next to the table) and placed sodas and water for the adults and served lemonade to the children. I also had a table with a basket of the goody bags in the center and as each guest arrived they placed their gift on the table.  The last thing to do was open the gifts.  I always try to do this last, because with this age children sometimes things get frantic with lots of new toys to be opened around. I always have my daughter open each gift and thank each individual.  This makes each guest feel special as she is opening her gifts. I ask a parent to make a list of the gifts for thank-you notes. During the party, I designate one person to take all the pictures and this year I had the birthday girl take a picture with each individual guest in front of the blow-up castle. I included this picture in my thank-you note.  I also took a picture of my daughter in a Princess outfit...crown and shoes and make the cards on line myself. The website to do this is www.mycardmaker.com and her picture is on the front of the card. This is a great website and it is free.  I didn't ask the guests to dress-up for this party because their were boys invited and I didn't want to put pressure on any of the parents to have to buy a princess outfit. The tiara's, crowns, wands and swords worked out beautifully. The swords were all plastic and the boys were warned to keep things nice! Once the gifts and thank-yous were done, the birthday girl took the basket and passed out the goody bags. The goody bags were filled with (for girls) body jewels, princess ball tosser, friendship bracelets and candy, (for boys) sword pens, princess ball tossers (all blue), friendship bracelets and candy.  All these items were purchased from oriental trading company. After the guests left, my daughter had time to sit down quietly inside and enjoy all of her gifts. Everyone had a lovely time and the suggestions from the other parties were lots of help in planning this one.