| Why not celebrate your little girl's birthday in style | | | | winner and receives a prize. |
| with a princess costume tea party? Send out | | | | The royal tea has to be fit for a princess and of |
| invitations on pretend parchment scrolls | | | | greatest importance is the birthday cake. Many |
| proclaiming that a Royal Tea will be held in the | | | | specialist confectioners will supply cakes in the |
| honour of Princess (add child's name) at her castle | | | | shape of a fairytale castle, with designs as |
| (add address). Request that guests come suitably | | | | elaborate as you could want. There are also many |
| attired in princess costumes. Any little boys invited | | | | good cake decorating books which give |
| can dress up in Prince Charming outfits. You, the | | | | step-by-step instructions for you to create your |
| parents, can dress up as king and queen. | | | | own castle cake. Other suitable princess foods are |
| Keep the young guests amused when they arrive | | | | cupcakes decorated with edible silver and gold |
| by providing them with ready cut-out crowns to | | | | balls, frosted grapes (they look like jewels!), |
| decorate, which they can then wear with their | | | | strawberries, jellies, ice cream and dainty |
| princess costumes. Crowns can be made of | | | | sandwiches. |
| strong gold or silver card and you can supply | | | | After tea, calm your guests down by reading |
| glitter, glue, shiny buttons, plastic beads and other | | | | them a story with, of course, a princess theme, |
| decorative items. This will keep the children | | | | such as "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty" or "the |
| amused for a while and you can offer a prize for | | | | Princess and the Pea". Take the opportunity, while |
| the best decorated crown. | | | | all the children are sitting still, to take photographs |
| A variation on the traditional "pin the tail on the | | | | of them all in their princess costumes. |
| donkey" game (and which is sure to be popular | | | | Before your young princesses depart, remember |
| with your princesses) is "put the princess in her | | | | to give them a going home present. It is a nice |
| castle". Make or buy a poster of a fairytale castle | | | | idea to have a lucky dip, so that each child can |
| and fix it to a wall. Make sure a window is clearly | | | | enhance her princess costume with "precious" |
| visible in the castle and mark it with an "X". Draw | | | | jewels. Prior to the party, you will need to have |
| and cut out several cardboard figures in princess | | | | amassed a small collection of cheap plastic |
| costume - one for each child (use pictures from | | | | necklaces, rings and bracelets (look in toy shops, |
| magazines or from the internet, if your drawing | | | | thrift stores or charity shops) and wrap them up |
| skills are not up to scratch) and place a small | | | | in pretty paper. Put the parcels in a bucket and |
| piece of "Blu-tack" on the back of each one. | | | | conceal with shredded paper and get each child to |
| Making sure each child has her eyes tightly closed, | | | | choose a parcel. This will be a great finale to a |
| get her to place Cinderella in her castle. The one | | | | wonderful party. |
| whose Cinderella is closest to the "X" is the | | | | |