Princess and Knights Birthday Party

For our daughters 3rd birthday party we decided to have a Princess and Knights party for about 20 kids. We rented out the gym of our church to keep the disaster away from our house. Plus, it gave the kids plenty of room to run around.

My sister in-law made the invitations, absolutely the best.
I made crowns from stiff felt (from the craft store: only one store of three had it), elastic, glitter, sequence and rick rack. I also made felt tunics with both our family crests on them.

My husband made shields  of corrugated cardboard. He used spray adhesive with paper images on top. The kids played with all the extra cardboard. I wanted a cardboard castle but we ran out of cardboard too close to the birthday party to buy more. The little kids had just as much fun.

For the craft, the kids made paper doll puppets. I printed them onto card stock and just cut them out. We used crayons, extra lace and fabric from prom/wedding dresses I had laying around. I prepped the knights with foil a head of time. For the girls I prepped the dolls with fabric skirts and sticks. In order to cut down on drying time for everything we got a huge bag of wooden chopsticks (for $2) at our Asian food store and I have been crafting with them. They were perfect for this craft. The kids are still playing with the puppets weeks later, I thought for sure they would be destroyed. I think the sticks help to keep the kids from bending the paper too much.

For the goody bags I made sugar cookies and punched them out in the shape of crowns Also, I included glow-in-the-dark lizards or bracelets along with a bottle of bubbles.

I got a decorative punch from the craft store and used it on everything I could to justify buying it. It got used on the cupcakes, crafts, and gift bags. I cheated with the cupcakes, I chose to spend time with family who were in town instead of making them from scratch. Plus, the grocery store had cupcakes on sale that week.
All the kids and parents had fun. Sadly, my husband was completely wiped out and begged never to do this again.