We sent a save the date out to all of the knights and maidens of the land, about two weeks prior to the party.  We put on the subject line: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye!  And then in the message we wrote: Once Upon a time, there was a brave and valiant knight named Sir Jacob. On the anniversary of his sixth birthday, he will be inviting your brave knights and fair maidens from near and far to come celebrate. The Festival will take place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, the 12th of February in the year of our Lord 2006 at the castle courtyard located at ----------------------(address). A formal invitation will be delivered in days to come. Please save the date for our Sir Jacob!  Then we went printed the invitations on gray cardstock with a knight riding the horse on the bottom of it and then tied it with red ribbon and addressed each child as - Sir Jack or Maiden Maya. The invitation read:  Once Upon a Time, there was a brave and valiant knight named Sir Jacob. On the anniversary of his 6th birthday, he invited other brave knights and fair maidens from near and far to celebrate. The festival will take place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, the 12th of February in the year of our Lord 2006 at the castle courtyard located at ---------------------------(address). Celebrants will feast on medieval cake and ice cream, and partake in games of bravery and chilvary.  The favour of a reply is requested by February 8th The Lady Rachel 000-000-0000  Between the time of the invitations going out and the party. I got busy to work! I began sewing tunics. I used the simplicity pattern 5520. I made the tunics out of scrap fabric that I had at home. Most of them were made from felt or heathered flannel. A few were made of cotton. The charges were made of felt. The best part of using the flannel and felt is, you don't have to finish the neckline or the arm holes. It made it go a little faster. I had to make 16. Then I used the pattern provided for the charges. Before I cut the charges out, I ironed on wonderunder to the bottom of the felt piece. So, once you iron it on, you then cut it out. After you cut it out, peel off the paper backing then you can iron the charge right on the tunic and there it will stay! I also cut 46" pieces cotton cording and then knotted the ends. The boys would use them as the belts. For the girls I made magic wands. I just cut dowel rods in half. Then drilled in holes near the end. Then I cut thin ribbon and tied them at the end of the dowel and let it dangle. I used red and purple since those are the royal colors. then I cut two stars out of card stock and wrote their names on with metallic sharpies. Then I glued the two stars together at the top of the dowels. They dried over night. Also, before the party I cut out crowns out of posterboard. And princess hats out of posterboard. I wrote Sir Jacob...on the boys and Lady Grace...on the girls.  I also made pinata treat bags out of brown lunch bags. i drew a empty shield on the front and wrote Sir Jacob and Lady Grace under the shield. Then on a Saturday morning I had my six and three year olds color in the shield.  The morning of the party, I made the cake. I bought two Sara Lee family size pound cakes. Then I let them thaw. I layed on flat and then I cut the other into thirds. The two ends, I turned on their sides and ran a toothpick through them, so they would not fall over. Then I decorated all of it with yellow icing. We covered it with windows, flags made with fruit rollup flags on tall shish-ka-bob sticks. And the towers were sugar cones turned upside and icied with yellow icing. Then we ran thin strips of red and purple fruit rollups Then bridge was stick pretzels laid upon a sea of blue icing. The kids loved it!  I also decorated the house with red and purple streamers. All of our tables were covered with purple table clothes. All of our plates, cups and silverware was either red or purple.   I laid out all of the crowns at everyone spots to decorate when they arrived. i also had a baggie with every childs name on one. Each child had 12 gems inside. I also had Elmers washable paint pens-they were great! I had them glue Arlene's craft glue since it dries so fast.  I also stuffed the red dragon pinata with candy. We stuffed a shoe box full of gold coins and plastic dragons. Covered it with tin foil and labeled it King Jacob's treasure.  We also had the birthday boy dressed in his shirt, the little sister in a princess dress and daddy in a tshirt from Target that said "I'm your knight in shining armor!"   When everyone was ready to come we put a full size knight outside of the front door to welcome the guests.  As soon as the first guest arrived, we let them pick out a tunic and belt if a boy, and a wand if a girl(the girls asked if they could wear their own dress up clothes!). Then the children painted their crowns and hats. I did this first so the paint could dry.  Then we all met upstairs for Knight whispers (operator). With a dozen 6 year olds playing we got some funny sentences! Someone would start a secret in their neighbors ear and they had to whisper it around the circle. And the last person in the circle says what they were told. Then had a blast. After that, we had cake and ice cream. Big hit.  When cake and ice cream was over, we all gathered upstairs in a big room. I had all the kids line up in a straight line. I had all of the dried crowns and hats. I set a big pillow on the floor infront of me. We talked about what it means to be a knight, more funny answers! The key was that they have to be brave and noble.  So, I called them up to kneel on the pillow one by one. When they kneeled, I got out a wooden sword. I tapped their shoulder and I told them, "In our of Sir Jacob's birthday I haved knighted you for being Noble and Brave...Sir Jack" and then I would put on their crowns. The same for the princess, except I said that they have turned into princesses for being sweet and nice.  After the knighting ceremony. We played pinata with the wooden sword. Everyone had their personalized bags and got their loot as soon as the pinata was opened. Next they had to find the hidden treasure box. After they found it, we had them sit in circle. They sat there and got to pick out 6 coins and two dragons. They had their treat bags to put their stuff in.  For gift opening, the king (birthday boy) sat in on spot on the sofa and then gift giver go to sit next to him. That went really well. The girls were able to bring home the wands, hats, treat bags. The boys got bring home their hats, tunics, belts, and treat bags.  It was the best party ever!