Fairies and Knights Party

The decorations

A fairy lights canopy over the table, a green tablecloth like a meadow with paper flowers scattered along it, pink and gold ribbons tied to chair backs, cardboard castle towers taped either side of the doorway as the castle gate, and a hand lettered scroll on the wall with the kingdom rules.

The food table

Castle sandwiches stacked with a flag toothpick, dragon egg grapes in bowls, rainbow fruit skewers, cheese wands on pretzel sticks with a star of cheese on top, pink lemonade in a glass dispenser labeled fairy potion, and butter cookies baked in sword, heart, castle and star shapes.

Station 1: the magic wand workshop

Put out sticks, ribbons, tulle and pipe cleaners. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the top of the stick and curl it into a star or a spiral, then tie ribbons underneath so they trail.

Younger children get a pre curled star to slide on and just add ribbons.

Station 2: paint your shield

Cut a shield from cardboard for every child before the party and tape a strong handle on the back. Put out paints in a few colors and let each knight paint their own crest.

Lay them in the sun to dry while the games run.

Game 1: put out the dragon's fire

Draw and cut a large dragon from poster board with paper flames coming from its mouth and prop it up outside. Fill a tub with water balloons and let the children throw them at the flames until the fire is out.

Have a second tub of balloons ready, because they will want to do it again. This is the loudest ten minutes of the whole party, so save it for when the energy needs somewhere to go.

Game 2: the gemstone hunt

Hide plastic gemstones all over the party space before the children arrive. Give every child a small cloth pouch and send them hunting.

Set a number per child so it stays fair, and keep a few extra gems in your pocket for the child who finds none. There is always one.

Game 3: Who Am I

Stick a label on each child's forehead with a character on it: a fairy, a dragon, a knight, a king, a unicorn or a wizard. Draw the character for children who cannot read yet.

They walk around asking each other yes and no questions, or giving clues, until they guess who they are.

The magic moment

Dragon tag is the free game in the middle: one child is the dragon, whoever is caught becomes a dragon too, until the last hero is standing.

And then the smoke bubble machine, which at this party is dragon breath. Bubbles filled with fog drifting across the garden while children run through them with wands and shields is the picture you will keep.

The finale and the favors

Toast marshmallows on skewers over a small fire or a grill and call it dragon fire. Not suitable under age 5, and it needs an adult at the fire the entire time.

Each child goes home with a fairy dust necklace, which is a tiny glass bottle of fine glitter on a cord, the pouch of gemstones they found, a small coloring booklet, a couple of sword and castle cookies wrapped in cellophane, and the wand and shield they made.