6103

Princess & Knights -4yr- Pin Horn On Unicorn

April 2003

Dawn in Wylam, Northumberland, UK

Special Mention

Princesses & Knights Party 4 year old  Yesterday afternoon, after several weeks of planning we held a party for our daughter Lydia who celebrated her 4th Birthday. Like most girls of her age, she is very into anything pink and sparkly and as 4 is such a magical age we decided to give her a very special party.  The whole of her nursery class was invited plus a few of her other friends but all around the same age - there were many more boys than girls which is why we decided to go with the knights and princesses theme rather than having anything too girly.  We hired the local church hall, which is only a few yards from our home.  I got many, many ideas from the Birthday Ideas site, which I found invaluable which is why I wanted to post this. 

We made invitations on the computer, which were like a royal announcement, printed on pink parchment paper and rolled like a scroll tied with blue sparkly ribbon.  Lydia enjoyed watching me make the invitations and helped to put the ribbons on.  Many parents commented on the invitations and virtually all accepted  24 in total.  For the tableware, Lydia chose the Mystical Unicorn design and we ordered the napkins, paper plates and cups. 

The food was served on gold paper plates and the tables had lilac paper cloths as I felt the other tableware would stand out more against a plain background. I had also painted a backdrop of a fairytale castle scene on a large roller blind that I had got free from the recycling warehouse  I didn’t even know I could paint until last week but again it was much admired. The room was decorated with pastel streamers and pink, lilac and blue balloons.  My niece and her friend made Lydia a throne out of a chair, gold card and some purple material I got from our local kids craft warehouse.  This was very popular with all the children and I took Polaroid photographs of the children sitting on the throne or next to Lydia for their party bags.

While we were getting things ready in the hall my friend helped Lydia to get ready for the party. She wore a Sleeping Beauty dress from the Disney Store complete with tiara and sceptre and she looked really beautiful.  The guests looked fantastic too, arriving as knights, princesses, princes and even a dragon.  At the start of the party I provided craft materials such as glitter, sequins and stick on jewels for the children to decorate their party bags and those that wanted to also decorated party crowns.  This was a very popular activity and lots of the parents said what a nice idea it was. 

We then played some party games Musical Lily Pads like musical chairs but children have to sit down on a paper lily pad, Musical corners, Pass the Parcel. The parcel had a lot of layers to give every child a chance of opening a layer and in hindsight it may have been better to have had two circles and two parcels going together but the kids were very patient.  We then had tea, which included things like Avocado Frog Dip, Magic Toadstools (from Annabel Karmel’s party book) and Jewel Biscuits and we finished tea with individual jellies. Lydia had been very involved in helping to prepare the food, which we both really enjoyed doing. I had made a Fairytale Castle birthday cake from Jane Asher’s book and I put a little Sleeping Beauty doll on it wearing the same dress as Lydia. She looked so lovely as she blew out her candles that her daddy and I got tears in our eyes and a lump in our throats. 

After tea the children split into two teams and we played Pin the Horn on the Unicorn and Pin the Fire on the Dragon. Lydia and I had painted these on boards in the weeks before the party.   I had also pinned pairs of cut out slippers all over the room which was useful a couple of times in between games to send the children off to find a pair the prize was something from the King’s Treasure Chest which I’d made from a small foil covered cardboard box and filled with chocolate coins and mini chocolate eggs. We had a game of Pass the Frog (hot potato with a beanie frog) and then gathered around for the grand finale, which was a unicorn piñata.  Although they are popular in the USA, not many parties here have piñatas. We debated whether to make the piñata a pull string one but Lydia said she wanted to bash it  - well it was her party!. 

The children really enjoyed it and were very good about sitting down on the floor when it was another child’s turn with the basher.  It took ages to break the piñata, though and eventually I had to make a couple of cuts in it as even the dads who took a turn with the basher couldn’t break it.  When it finally broke, the children filled their party bags, which we’d put birthday cake and the Polaroid photograph in- one little boy even took one of the unicorn’s legs home as a souvenir.    Lydia helped to give all her friends balloons on sticks, thanked them and said goodbye.

As they were leaving, many parents commented on how well organised and lovely everything had been which was good to hear as I was so busy during the party it was difficult to gauge how it all went. We had a lot of help in the couple of hours immediately before the party, to decorate the hall and set out food and I would recommend if doing this kind of party that as many willing volunteers are recruited as possible  All in all it was a lovely party which we enjoyed planning and which went off really smoothly on the day.

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