Hear ye, Hear ye....

When it was our middle child's turn for a "big" birthday, knowing that he wanted to invite all his girl friends as well, I tried to discourage him from going superhero yet again. So I suggested a Knights and Princess party. So, as we began planning, the boys got more and more excited to be knights. While it may look like I went all out and over the top: the only things I purchased were: the craft for the kids to do, cupcake supplies, cutlery, the helmets/swords, and my princess dress from a 2nd hand store...

I had tons of material in my cabinets at school that my mom had given to me ( leftovers from her projects and stuff given to her) so I found a huge amount of white and gray and some red stretchy cotton. Do not look closely at these, for if I was a sewer, I would never put my name on these. I put a sloppy hem on them..... cut out the symbol and even stopped pinning things after my first one......(I thought....I need to make how many of these????)

The helmets I found online (4 for $3.50) and the blow-up swords (12 for $4.95?). Pretty cheap for these types of things....

(sigh) You know I wanted to make a big medieval fortress cake, but I decided the time and money just wasn't worth it when the kiddos would love cupcakes just as much and they are SO much easier to pass out to 12 rowdy kids. Although Luke kept asking me if he was getting a castle cake.

One day with all 3 kids in the car, we went to Target for some school supplies....I asked someone in the back if they had any boxes. They were just about to dump some so I said I would love to have it. It was a flat box, but huge! I had to fold it and tell my kids to not move an inch so their faces weren't sliced by the huge box. It was a big ordeal to get it home and I could only fit one in there, but it worked out good. I can't help it though, my mind keeps going....."Oh, I could make the towers, I could.....I could....." Simmer down Joy. So I brought the boxes home, and one day during naptime, I thought....Hmm. I have some gray paint in the garage, since we just painted our living room. I have some spray paint.....

So I painted it and the morning of the party, tied it to the playground set and took down the swings. I loved the look on the boys when they came home and saw it.

So it was a great party. The biggest challenges were the heat, and the wind when we were doing our craft. The boys decorated shields and the girls decorated crowns. They played "Mr. King, Mr. King, what time is it?" and the king says a time, you walk that many steps...unless he says midnight, then everyone runs back to the castle. That was a hit.

They ate cupcakes and opened presents and then "someone stole the treasure" and all the kids went out to look for the missing treasure (chocolate gold coins) and put them in their bags....

Dad was a king, and had a crown, scepter, and tablecloth robe. But with it being 90 degrees, he didn't keep it on for long. My attire consisted of an $8 Saver's dress, (which was size 4, so I pinned a ruffled tu-tu on the back where the zipper didn't make it all the way to the top....(who wears size 4 anyway?) I got a $1 crown and some tulle (sp?) from Libby's party.

It was a good party. We wanted Luke to get the spotlight for once. It seems like he is always in Ian's shadow or doing things just to fit in. We only invited the friends his age. (we're trying to differentiate their friends for things like these, which is difficult)
Anyway, I heard from several parents had church today, that the getting the boys to take off their costumes, was a battle. One girl wore her crown this morning. :) (sigh) No big birthdays for awhile. I'll try to put my creative energy into just my teaching this year.