Planning a Princess Party 5-7 year olds

All of the below can be used or edited to meet your needs. This is only a guideline to help those parents who are not accustomed to working with a large group of children at one time.

Invitations:
YOUR CHILD WILL SURELY WANT TO HELP TO MAKE THESE EASY BUT ORIGINAL BIRTHDAY INVITATIONS.

Option 1:
Type up the following on pink paper: " All Princess, Princes, Fairies and Knights, A message that is sure to delight. One of the princesses in our land, is having a birthday and it should be grand. Princess ___________ would like it if you, could come to her castle to celebrate too. Come in costume just for fun, but also bring play clothes to jump and run."

Then roll them up and put them inside toilet paper rolls then wrap them with gold paper. Put a couple of little candies in them first, stick an address label and a couple of stickers and you can actually mail them through the post office.

Option 2:
Alternatively, take a paper towel tube and cut it in half to make 2 towers. Paint the towers in pink and purple and add some windows and brick motif. Printed out the invitation saying ( hear ye, hear ye, her majesty Princess ___________ is celebrating her 7th birthday, the queen Mother requests the presence of Princess _________to join the festivities!!! The royal celebration will begin at 1:00 pm on the 8th of January 2006. Please RSVP at ( phone number). and place it inside a tube. Make the cone part for the roof and place it on top of the castle with a little flag saying look inside.

Preparation for party:
Decorate a high backed chair like a throne by covering it in red fabric (the shinier the better) and stick a white boa around the top. When the children arrive, take a picture of them on the throne. You can use these photos for your thank you cards or Photo Frames.

Set out a rug with our Make a Princess Sticker Scene. Alternatively, set out bricks to make castle style buildings. Really any easy and fun activities will do as this will be where children will wait when they are out of a game.

Decorate the outside of your house with a Large Princess Party Sign marked with your child’s name on it and of course balloons. This will not only build excitement but also help parents find you.

Have party bags ready and labelled. Add in Princess Pencil, Fairy Tale Pop ups and some Princess Stickers. Children can add the Royal dough and Magnetic Princess Craft Kit and Princess Sticker Sheets after they have made them.

HAVE A PEN AND PAPER READY TO RECORD ANY PHONE NUMBERS OF PARENTS WHO ARE NOT STAYING.

ASK ABOUT ANY ALLERGIES.

Party Begins:
Intro activity: (20 mins.)

Have the Tiara Craft Kit set out for children to start with. This is a great settling in activity and is open ended. If any child arrives late they can simply join in and finish their tiara at home, if need be. Boys can make Crown Craft Kit or simply cut out a shield shape, divide the shield into 5 parts with a ruler and pen and suggest boys decorate these instead of tiaras. Once completed, set aside to dry on a flat surface. At the end of the party, you can stick the ends together so they have these great tiaras to wear home. All children should be able to do this activity unaided but there are always exceptions.

Remember: Write the child’s name on the back of the tiara before they begin.

Activities: (20 mins.)
Musical Statues: Explain to the children that they are princes and princesses dancing at the Cinderella ball and that the wicked stepmother is searching for them so when the music stops they must stand absolutely still like a statue, otherwise she will lock them up in the dungeon. (Use the rug you set out earlier for those who are out.)

Musical Throne (a.k.a. musical chairs): Line up a row of chairs ensuring one per child. Include the chair you decorated as a throne. Have a few rounds of stopping the music with enough chairs for everyone. Start to take away a chair each round. Once again, those out can use the rug from earlier. The winner is the king/Princess on the throne.

Craft Activity: (20 mins)
PRINCESS DOOR HANGER CRAFT KIT or MAGNETIC PRINCESS CRAFT KIT or PRINCESS DIARIES CRAFT KIT
Why not give them the option? Depending on the quantity of adults you have available, you may want to divide the children into 2 smaller groups for these activities.

You can use glue sticks for these crafts but I would suggest glue dots, hot glue (done by an adult) or other strong glue to stick the magnets. (Be sure to check which side of the magnet is magnetic before sticking)

If you need a activity that can be done unaided, try this easy activity: ROYAL DOUGH Give the children some play dough, some glitter, and sequins and leave them to mix it all together. Put into a plastic bag and you have another party bag present.

TIME TO EAT (30 mins.):
Food is up to you but keep it simple. Children love the really easy foods like sandwiches. Cut then into royal shapes with a cookie cutter), home made biscuits decorated with some princesses and princes names ie. Snow white, Aurora….., pizza, cupcakes, juice and milk (instead of soda), Try to give them as many healthy options as possible, parents will appreciate it.

Cut the cake after you have eaten so it gives an adult time to prepare it to go home. Another good reason is it often gets forgotten.

Final Activity: (20-30 mins):
TREASURE HUNT & Princess Tattoos A great way to end the party is by having a TREASURE HUNT. Divide the children into two groups. One will stay with an adult to apply the temporary tattoos & size up their tiaras, and the other will go on the treasure hunt.

A fun, original and easy way to run a treasure hunt is to take photos of a princess dolly sitting on things around your home and garden. Place each picture in an envelope and hide it behind or under the previous location of your hunt. Move around as a team. Start by giving the children the first envelope, one child opens it, they all look at it and decide where that place might be. They go there and find the next envelope at that location. At the final location, you could have the king’s treasure waiting for them, which could be gold coins from Thorton’s.

For older children, they could be finding letters instead of photos. Once they find them all they then have to work out as a team what the royal message might be.

(Be sure to arrange it so that the second team going around (those who tattooed first) have not realized where the clues are hidden. A good way is to exclude one room from the treasure hunt, i.e. the kitchen, they could do their tattooing there.

WAITING TO GO HOME ACTIVITY:
Pin the Crown on the Tiara. It is almost over. You need to hand out the party bags, tiaras, royal play dough, cake, and princess door hanger/magnetic princess craft kit. A great and easy way to do this is by packing them as you go along. Have the party bags laid out ready and have one of the free adults putting the bits together as you go along.

We have great bags that can be used as party bags. Some you decorate yourself (which your child could do as preparation for the party, others they could take home to do. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY ANY PARTY BAG JUNK. THEY HAVE MADE ALL THEY NEED THROUGHOUT THE PARTY.

Once they all go home, take a deep breath, open the presents and don’t forget to print out those photographs you took at the beginning so your child can get started on the thank you cards before she forgets!! You could purchase some of our magnetic photo frames to pop the photo in and write a simple message on the back instead of a thank you card.

Success: One key to success with large and very involved parties is to get adult guests to help. They love to participate so don't hesitate to get them involved. If you're really organized, assign them to tasks ahead of time (packing the party bags, tattooing, royal playdough)

Some Alternatives Suggested by guests of our website:

Debbie sent in:
We 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 coloured 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 short cuts, etc.. for example: 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.

Helen sent in:
Presents: When they arrived, I put stickers with numbers on them. Later on, each child took their present and sat in front of the birthday princess on her thrown. We started with whoever had present #1. That eliminates all the fuss of whose present gets opened when. We made it all seem very grand. It was really fun and it helped to teach my child how to say thank you.

Anne-Marie sent in:
I try to always add something fun just for the adults. This time it was a wine tasting bar set up and special royalty gobbles (found at the dollar store too). Other times I've done trivia games relating to the party theme and even a mixer game where they either have a joke question or the answer and they have to find their partner.