A Knights Adventure: The Search for the Red Dragon 4th Birthday Party My preschooler is fascinated by dragons, so it was fitting that he chose a knight theme for his fourth birthday party.  For the invitations, I purchased parchment paper from an office supply store and created them on the computer. I put an outline of a castle in the background with a knight on noble steed in the bottom corner.  Each read as a summons from the town crier: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Sir _________ cordially requests the honour of your presence for a "Knight's Adventure: The Quest for the Red Dragon" to celebrate his 4th birthday on _________________ at ____________________.  We ended up having 6 preschool children present with their parents for a total of 14 people. Prior to the party I created knight helmets using a pattern from The Cleveland Museum of Art.  This pattern can be downloaded online from their arms and armour section of the website.  It is fairly easy to make and comes complete with working visor.  Wonderful party favor!  I used poster board to create the helmets. We had one little princess who I created a cone hat for using a piece of poster board with flowing ribbons at the top. I also cut shields from craft foam and hot glued straps on the back for a handle. We were able to find foam stickers of dragons, castles, kings, queens, and unicorns for the children to use in decorating the shields during the party as a craft project.  I also used the McCall's sock pony pattern to create noble steeds for each of our little lords and lady. They were easy to make but did take a lot of time.  Each one used a dowel rod with a stuffed sock for the horse's head. I then cut strips of cloth for the mane, used ribbon to create the bridle, and painted eyes and nostrils on the horses.  My son made goody bags for the pinata activity by putting the medieval stickers on lunch bags. As the children arrived for the party, they were ushered into our playroom. I set up a craft table in the middle of the room and used one of my son's dragon toys with a balloon bouquet tied around it for the centerpiece.  The children decorated their shields with the stickers as I fitted each child with a helmet.  Our little princess decorated her cone hat with the stickers and was given a royal scepter I had made instead of a shield.  As each child finished, they could then play with the toys in the room.  I also placed my son's very large rocking horse that my husband made for him in our living room with a large stuffed dragon.  Many of our little knights ran in to take a ride and chase the dragon.  Once everyone was finished, we went into the kitchen to get our food and drinks. This was an afternoon party, so I had a large variety of appetizers and finger foods.  The little lords and ladies noticed at this point that off of our kitchen we had placed the Mega Bloks Mega Play Adventure Castle as the entrance to our sunroom. My son's castle toys were arranged around the room so the children could play.  We also hung our dragon pinata from the ceiling.  The mothers helped me get the kids into our dining room so they could eat.  It was decorated like the craft table with a dragon figure as the centerpiece. The cake was also on display. I created a castle cake using the directions from www.bhg.com. Search for castle cake.  It looked very impressive yet was easy to make. I also used the Wilton mini wonder mold pan to create a 3 dimensional dragon cake. The wonder mold was the body.  I cut up a cupcake to form a tail on the dragon and used large marshmallows on toothpicks to create a head.  You then icing to look like a dragon. It turned out great! We put swirly candles in the dragons mouth to look like it was breathing fire towards the castle.  The children were amazed! After their snack we entered the living room for story time.  I read Excuse Me, Are You A Dragon? by Rhett Ransom Pennell. In the story a knight riding a horse is searching for a dragon.  After we finished reading, I asked the kids who went with Sir Gordon on his dragon quest.  They replied, Sturdy Roger, the horse. My son then helped me surprise everyone with their own horses.  After donning helmets, shields, and climbing atop our noble steeds, we began our own quest for the red dragon. I led the procession of preschoolers around the house ending at the entrance to the play castle where they bounded inside to battle the dragon for it's treasure. Each child took turns pulling strings until the chocolate gold coins were released.  They used the goody bags my son had made to collect their "treasure".  We then opened gifts and ended by eating cake and ice cream. The children had a great time! We even had parents calling to thank us for inviting them.  Each child went home with their helmet or cone hat, shield or scepter, stick horse, and chocolate gold.