It was a Knight and Castle party for my son's 6th birthday. I sent out "invitation proclamations" on rolled up parchment paper, even burned the edges so they looked very
authentic.
I addressed and typed out the invites individually to each Sir Thomas of Jones or Lady Sally of Adkins in a really old style typesetting. We made a cardboard castle out of old moving boxes using the wardrobe boxes as the turrets. They had a great time playing in it! I cut out felt tunics, cut out foam poster board swords, tied string to the back of some large Chinet paper plates and purchased the plastic helmets from www.birthdayexpress.com. For the "Ladies" I coiled star-tinsel wire in a circle and strung long curly ribbon off one side and gave each girl a plastic wand. The girls also received a tunic to wear. The kids first colored crests for the their tunics, colored their swords, and colored paper plates shields. We then held a jousting tournament. The kids lined up into two teams, like a relay. The knight had to ride his stick pony and hold a 5-foot PVC pipe out in front of him, then try to stick the end on the pipe into one of two small rings I had suspended from a rope strung across the yard. The other team's knight went after the other ring from the opposite direction. They really enjoyed this game! A fire-breathing dragon that had come to invade the castle interrupted the tournament. The kids had to slay the horrible dragon and spill it's guts all over the yard (a dinosaur piņata I added mouth breathing fire to). You have to say "guts" to 5 and 6 year old boys, they like that kind of thing. Then, because they had proven themselves worthy by tournament and heroic deeds, they got to go on a fun "Quest for the Goblet of Power" - a treasure hunt with clues to find and do things all over the place (front, back, and in the neighbors yard). I split the kids up into four teams and assigned an adult or teenager to lead each team. Ahead of time I came up with 6 clue poems, which would lead them to various stations where they would have to do something to claim the treasure at that particular spot. For example, I had made out of cardboard, a large drawbridge door that I laid out in front of my front door. I made paper chains that went from the top of my front door down to the drawbridge. Along the walk way I had laid out some very cool mysterious looking rocks. They kids had to throw their shield like a Frisbee through a hula-hoop in order to break the spell and pick up the magic rocks. The last station was to find the Goblets of Power. The goblets were just plastic wine glasses I painted gold and glued jewels on with fabric paint and then filled with gold chocolate coins. I hid them in a special, unique part of the yard and as each team arrived at the last station they had to find them in the bushes. I made sure to use a non-toxic paint when I painted the glasses gold, so that the kids could drink out of them with the cake. I ordered the paper castle napkins from www.birthdayexpress.com, and used plain red plates, which I embellished with a design using a gold pen. I made a castle cake using a regular 8 round two layer cake and surrounded it with cupcake ice cream cone turrets in an oval pattern on an oval tray. Then using sugar cones and different colored frosting, I drew on a drawbridge and made the top look like it had a pointed roof. Bake the cupcakes in the ice cream cones just like the recipe for regular cupcakes! They make great turrets! And the cake is SO easy to serve. It was a GREAT party! The kids went away with their outfits, goblets, and lots of dragon guts (candy) as the party favors. It was a lot of work in preparation, but the cost for all of it was under $100! Not too bad.
