I borrowed some puppets and we put on a puppet show with lots of activities involved. This is how the puppet show went...it's long so be prepared.  Well hello boy's and girls, so glad you could come today. I love to tell wonderful stories about dragons and evil sorcerer's, and of course there is always the tale of Princess ...(daughter's name). What ...you've never heard the story of the Princess. Well...have I got a tale for you. Once upon a time in a far away land their lived a beautiful Princess named .... Princess...was very happy in her beautiful castle over looking her fair kingdom. One day the royal jester, came to tell her that someone had stolen the princess's fortune. All her jewels, gold coins and various other princess-like treasure had been taken. The princess was very distressed by this and called all the fair maidens and all the handsome princes to come to her rescue. The beautiful princess told all the fair maidens and princes to go at once in search of her fortune. The beautiful princess had but one clue as to the location of her fortune which she gladly shared with her royal public. The jester had found a slip of paper at the scene of the crime which showed a map to a secret hiding place. They would have to.... (At this point we did a simple obstacle course then back for more of the story) They had finally arrived at the secret hiding place. The princes and fair maidens ventured inside but to their amazement the secret hiding place was empty. However, just as they were ready to leave in defeat out jumped a horrible monster (my husband). The monster jumped out and started to chase all of the fair maidens. (simple game of tag till all were caught.) The beautiful Princess, and her fair maidens had been captured. They realized that they would have to fight the evil monster to be freed.  (Had two foam swords and the kids took turns fighting with my husband at the end he was wounded and banished from the kingdom) The evil one now was defeated and knew that he would be banished from the kingdom. However, he boasted that they would never find the treasure box because the only one that knew of it's where abouts had been put under a magic spell which could only be broken by cracking a secret code. What would they do now? At that very moment the princess ....noticed that someone had dropped a clue. (at this point I threw out a princess story book at the feet of my daughter) There was a fairy tale book that had not been there before. Princess...being an exceptionally smart princess (must have gotten her intelligence from her mother the queen)realized that this was actually an encoded message. The princess noticed that the word "princess" appeared often in the book and thought if maybe they counted all the Princess words and came up with the number they could use this to find out who had been under a magic spell which could only be broken by saying this number.  (had the kids count the princess words and then go around and ask all the adults if they knew the magic number. Had one adult be under a spell and have a key hidden (key made out of cardboard and aluminum foil) The lovely maiden came out from under the evil spell and remembered that the evil monster had place an evil spell on her. The evil monster had been angry that the fair maiden had seen him with the treasure box. Just before she had been place under the spell she had seen the evil monster drop a large key, which she had slipped into her pocket without him knowing. On the key were written the words: only the pure of heart may open the door to the castle dungeon.  (had the kids look for the treasure chest in the basement - it was a piñata treasure chest) At last they had found the treasure box. It was more beautiful then any had imagined, each tried desperately to open the box, using the magic key. The key however did not fit the box. The princess...was very worried that her beautiful jewels and gold might have been stolen out of the treasure box. She offered to share all her wonderful treasures with all the fair maidens and Princes if only they would help her open the treasure box. They decided to hang it high in the air and each using their valiant strength try to open it by repeatedly hitting it with a large object. Would they at last be able to find the treasure? (Had the kids open the piñata) Finally the treasure box was opened. Princess...was so excited that her treasure had been found that she decided to throw a huge feast for all her faithful subjects. They would have a feast fit for a Princess. There would be cake and ice cream and of course presents for the princess. The proclamation was made: "Let's eat". The kids had a great time with all the different things they got to do...of course the story could be modified to fit what works for your party. The kids all sat and listened intently to the whole story...and we did have children from 2 to about 8.