I recently organized a "Once upon a time" Birthday party for my two sons.  It was a huge hit and relatively inexpensive.  Because it was a costume party, all the kids dressed up as their favorite Fairy tale character.  They were all so adorable... Considering that the majority of the kids were between the ages of 1 and 4 I had to plan a lot of activities to keep them occupied.   To get the parents and kids excited about the party, I sent out a homemade invitation that I had made by cutting out little shields and I wrote a little poem that sounded like the beginning of a fairy tale.." Once upon a time in a land not too far away, the Royal Richards (last name) planned a very special day..." Then I used a pretty font and added some sticker gems to the invitation and sent them to all our friends.  Then I organized a bunch of "kid-friendly" activities such as:

1.       I wrapped up a bunch of recycled boxes that I found around my house, such as a box of pasta.  I used cheap white wrapping paper and then I highlighted the edges of the box with a black marker to make the boxes look like bricks or stones.  At the party I put all the boxes in a corner and the kids built and rebuilt castles, bridges, walls, etc…with the bricks.  It was a huge party favorite.

2.       I went to Burger King and got a bunch of crowns.  Then I spray painted them and bought some fun glitter pens, sticker gems, etc .and had the kids decorate them however they wanted.

3.       I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of pirate coins and some chocolate coins.  Then I hid them all over and they had to find them.  You could also do a little scavenger hunt with a pirate map…

4.       I made some royal cookies and the kids decorated them with frosting, candy, etc..

5.       I went to the oriental trading company website and bought a bunch of stickers that had cute little princesses, queens, kings, dragons, trees, magicians, castles, etc. and the kids made their own little royal scenes. 

6.       Even though the kids were a bit young to enjoy the story-telling aspect of the party, I had them, with the help of the parents, write a section of a fairy tale that I started about my sons…They had a great time incorporating the names and characters of their own kids. The parents really enjoyed this part! 

7.        I had the kids break open a dragon piñata.. you could either buy one or make one. I usually love to make my on (http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/make-pinata.html ), but for time sake, I bought one at I-Party…I know that the Oriental Trading Company also has them. 8.       I found some cheap velvet-looking fabric and draped it over a chair to make it look like a royal throne, then I had the kids play musical chairs and whoever ended up sitting on the chair at the end of the song/poem won a little prize.  For the poems, you could use little nursery rhymes like “Old King Cole” and “Humpty Dumpty’. My boys also sat in those chairs when we ate dinner and cake.  You could also decorate the paper plates and cups with the sticker gems, as long as the little ones don’t try to eat them! 

9.       I made my own castle cake.  I used 4 boxes of cake mix and made a two-layer cake. I made the turret towers by stacking one upside down ice cream cone on top of another and used melted chocolate to hold them together.  Then the tower top was an upside down waffle cone.  I put little flags on toothpicks on top of each of the four turrets.  I frosted the whole thing and then decorated it with a bunch of candy, such as peanut butter cups, Kit Kats, etc.   I also used some sheet fondant (you can make your own - http://www.baking911.com/recipes/cakes/candyclay.htm) and shaped it like an open scroll and then wrote Happy Birthday on it.

10.   As a party favor, I made little pirate booty bags and tied them with some ribbon.  The kids put their “booty” from the coin hunt, piñatas, and I also added little finger puppets that I also had bought from the Oriental Trading Company. 

11. I cut out some swords and shields out of cardboard and used them as decoration all over the room.  I also made the front door look like a drawbridge with crepe paper.