Our daughter wanted a Princess & Knight theme for her 6th birthday.  So, I went to this website & found LOADS of great ideas. The party really became a patch-work of what I thought were the best ideas from several of the already existing submissions. THANK YOU to all of you for your incredibly creative ideas!   I am blown away by all the talented moms out there! Here is what we came up with:  INIVITATION:  By royal decree, for all in the land, A grand birthday party is now being planned. Princess Taryn is SIX she's really excited, If you could please join us, she'd be so delighted! Every Princess & Knight, mark the notable date At 10 o'clock have your carriage arrive at the gate. The 28th of July is the special festive day, At the famed Grannis Castle, your mom knows the way. We shall have a grand time, so come one & all. If you plan to attend, the Queen requests a call (----  -----) We'll have a yummy banquet & games to entertain And no one goes home until the dragon is slain! If I tell you much more, it won't be a surprise. You'll just have to come & see with your own eyes! So please be our guest, it's coming up soon, Oh, before I forget, the party ends at NOON   DECOR I used a red plastic table cloth and taped it on the side-walk & steps leading up to our front door that way the kids got the royal treatment as soon as they stepped out of their car. Using large appliance boxes (& lots of grey & black paint) I made castle turrets to flank both sides of the bottom of the stairs inside my house. Upstairs, in the loft, was more of the same...large boxes decorated to look like a castle. The banister was draped with a flag banner instead of balloons.  (I have really young toddlers & didn't want to risk it.)  AS GUESTS ARRIVED: Each Knight was given a cardboard sword (purchased from OTC) which I spray-painted silver & let them decorate with stick on jewels.  Each Princess was given a cardboard princess hat (also from OTC) which I spray-painted with glitter spray & attached a bit of tulle sprouting from the top for a special princessy touch. They also decorated them with stick on jewels. GAMES/CRAFTS DESIGN YOUR OWN TREASURE BAG Plain paper gift bags with handles were decorated using stickers, glitter, jewels, etc.  These served as their loot bags & were carried from game to game. (Don't forget to put names on the bags!)  ROYAL TREASURE HUNT On the back of each loot bag, I attached a list of the following items for them to hunt for in the backyard: Merlin's Magical Bubble Brew (bubbles) Unicorn Ribbons (bubble gum tape from OTC) The Jester's Juggling Balls (super bounce balls from OTC) Dragon Eggs (plastic eggs w/coins) The Page-Boy's Trumpet (party horn)  PIN THE HORN ON THE UNICORN I'm not an artist, so I googled a picture of a unicorn & printed it on a transparency.  Then, using an overhead projector (I had to borrow one from my church building's library) I traced the image on a large piece of poster board leaving out the horn of course. Viola! I then drew extra horns on construction paper & cut them out for the kids to try to pin onto the poster while blind-folded.    ROYAL HOT POTATO GAME Play the old party classic hot potato but instead of a potato, use a Poisoned Apple & a Frog Prince.  SLAY THE DRAGON This is your classic party pinata with a midieval twist. We bought a green dinosaur pinata from pinatas.com & added wings to his back (using poster board) & flames coming from his mouth (using red & orange tissue paper).  FOOD & CAKE I found gold paper plates & napkins in the wedding section of the party store. I vetoed pink just because we had boys at the party tooI told Taryn gold was more royal anyway & that satisfied her.  We served pizza because it was easy. If your local Wal-Mart has a deli, they make a REALLY good take & bake pizza. They're fresh (not frozen) & HUGE (16).  For drinks, I skipped going with fancy punch & just bought Capri Sun juice pouches it made for easy (& fast) distribution/clean-up.   For the cake, I used the recipe & design from familyfun.com. SUPER CUTE! http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_princesscastle/  OPENING THE PRESENTS In the past, opening the presents was pure chaos! You've got all the kids practically mauling the birthday girl, a torrent of paper & ribbons, & when all is said & done you've no idea what gift came from who.  I set up two of my dining chairs side by side in the living room & draped them with a red table cloth.  The birthday princess sat in one of the chairs the other was reserved for the gift giver.  Then I used duct tape & taped off a semi-circle around the two chairs.  This was the royal circle & only the gift giver could cross (and only one at a time). Each princess & knight presented their gift & got to sit on a throne next to the princess & watch her unwrap it. I was able to take a special picture of each guest with my daughter & use them for Thank You cards later.   PARTY FAVORS The kids had been collecting all sorts of prizes throughout the party just by participating in the games. As they headed out the door, I awarded them with a final treat a bag of gold! I used gold foil wrapped candy (like rolos & almond Hershey kisses) & tied them in a little treat bag.