Knights and Princesses

It's that time again. What time you ask? Time to run the birthday gauntlet! All six of the children have birthday's which fall between April and July (2 are even on the same day!)

This last Saturday was the first birthday party of the "season". Each child gets to pick their theme, and my sweet 6 yr old Tony-boy picked Knights and Princesses (well, mommy threw in the princess part).

We try to make birthday parties a big deal but we NEVER go overboard with the cost. Do you have any idea what some people pay for a children's party? The thought makes me tremble. We home-make (is that even a word?) pretty much everything. The kids never seem to mind and usually have fun. But I'll let you be the judge...

We started off by serving lunch. This included easy to make Renaissance fare such as chicken legs and sausage and traditional chips and dip and sandwiches.

And what would a party be without a few games?

The games included Pin the Tail on the Dragon. This was the most simple. We drew a dragon on poster board and then used a piece of green foam (with the sticky back) and cut out tails. The next game was Find the Dragon Egg. This involved a little more prep. We bought tiny toys and made "eggs" out of homemade play dough, hiding a toy inside. We then hid the eggs throughout the house and had the children look for them. Of course, no Knight Party would be complete without a jousting tournament. Boy, was that intense!

It was so much fun the adults got in on it...

After the games we let children make shields (also out of foam) and get their faces painted (courtesy of my two oldest girls)

And, of course, we then went out to the garage to take care of the pinata! (A papermached dragon courtesy of my husband)

Last but not least, we opened presents and partook of the quintessential castle birthday cake


When all was said and done the party cost us under a hundred dollars for priceless memories!

(I couldn't resist throwing this picture in. My poor baby couldn't handle all the excitement)