My little girl was turning 5 and she loves princesses. So we went with that theme. First I made the invitations, a castle tower. I took an empty scott towel tube and cut it in half to make 2 towers. I painted the towers in pink and purple and added some windows and brick motif. I printed out the invitation saying ( hear ye, hear ye, her majesty Princess Shannon is celebrating her 5th birthday, the queen Mother request the presence of Princess (guest)to join the festivities!!! The royal celebration will begin at 1:00 pm on the 8th of January 2005. Please RSVP at ( phone number). and placed it inside the tube. then I made the cone part and placed it on top with a little flag saying look inside. For Decorations, I wanted 2 towers, so I went to a hardware store and bought a cardboard tube (they are made to pour ciment into for building foundation, they are very sturdy and come in 8, 10, 12 inches in diameter and are 12 feet long) So I bought the 12 in in dia. and got the man to cut it in 2, so I would have 2 towers of 6feet. I painted them in my theme colors of purple and pink, put a cone top to them and draped some veil to the side. I also clued fake vines going up them. It made for a great background for pictures. The table had a princess tablecloth and instead of confitti, I put mini hart lollipops all over the table. Also at the end of the table I placed the napkins (princess) and plastic cups (they were pink for the girls and blue for the boys, I wrote their names on the base in caligraphy with stars on each end). So they knew which glass was theirs. My mother made the cake (she's a professional, comes in handy at birthdays ha) it was a princess cake (3 princesses dancing around with sugar flowers ummm!) I printed straw toppers from the computer. I had Cinderella, Ariel, Belle etc and the Beast, Sebastien too. I put the toppers on straws and arranged them in a small vase besides the cups. I hung pink and purple streamers from the ceiling with gold crowns hanging at the ends (made from gold cardboard, just cut out a crown motif and glue it to form a crown), I also had princesses balloons at the center of the streamers. For activities: First the guests decorated each a princess hat with tule and glitters and gems and also a princess wand (I had straws I covered with colored paper. I precut heart and star shapes for the ends and ribbons, they just had to assemble) I had 3 boys at the party, so they had to make crowns instead (same idea as the crown for decorations, only fit to head) they also made shields,I used gold cardboard and precut the shapes, the boys had to come up with their own code of arms. Next they played (Beat the clock) a game that I came up with based on Cinderella. I made it life size and the guests were the playing pieces. To make the game I bought lots of colored cardboard, I then cut them in half ( so one half was a square on the game) I placed all my squares on the floor and taped them in place (I even made a few shortcuts,etc.. for exemple: the stepsisters are looking for Cinderella go back one space to hide, or the fairy godmother helps you, advance 2 spaces etc..) then I use a clock that has hands and put it to one o'clock. I also made 2 giant dice from cardboard, one with numbers, and one with a clock picture and Cinderella running. The guests line up at the start. the object is to first roll the die with the pictures on it, if you get a clock, you don't advance, but the clock advances one hour, if you get Cinderella running, then you get to roll the number die to see how many spaces you advance. the first to reach the end of the game, before the clock strikes 12, is the winner. The goodie bags were from the princess theme, I put princess candie necklaces (which I bought at Disney store for 1.99 each on sale) lollipops, chocolate coins and a princess keychain. for the boys I had lollipops, chocolate coins and a cookie decorating kit from kraft at 1.50 each. Then my daughter opened up her gifts. and we had cake and sandwiches, crackers and dip. Since her birthday is in January, and it was very mild outside, we all ended up at my Mother in law, in the country for some sliding and hot chocolate, a perfect end to a Princess day.