Go Shorty, It's Your Birthday: Sir Kane's Knights & Dragons 5th Birthday Party

Sir Kane in his original "House of Green" birthday shirt

It's been almost a month since I had my knights & dragons 5th birthday party and I have been after mom just as much as you have to get this post up already! And here it is at last -- huzzah! I have been seriously into knights, dragons, and most everything medieval for a while now. So it was not at all difficult for me to pick a party theme. But I made one thing very clear: I wanted a legit knights party. No cutesy business. No problem, mom said. And then proceeded to turn our house into a knight's castle complete with swooping dragons and a draped ceiling worthy of a nobleman such as myself.

Before I get into the details, though, I want to make sure you know that the posting tardiness is not due for lack of effort on mom's part. It's not that mom has been sitting feet up with a bottle of wine for a month (although, after that party, who could blame her?). Mommy and a good friend have been hard at work on a "new business," as I like to call it. They've put their creative minds together and are launching a new blog today -- A Feteful Life -- a DIY lifestyle + party blog where they're sharing their love of celebrating the everyday with party ideas, yummy things to eat, DIY projects to create, things they love and free printables. I've personally seen some of the content they've got lined up and you're going to want to check it out.

And don't worry, we'll still have our "online magazine." But it will probably continue to be a little light on the posting around here for a while. Mom's got us hard at work, too.

Now, back to the important stuff. Without further adieu, I present ... Sir Kane's Knights & Dragons 5th Birthday Party!!!

Mom kept her promise to me and designed a non-cutesy invitation sporting vintage graphics of knights with a dragon wrap. Green was the predominant color (surprise), with touches of yellow and royal purple. She managed to work in a few bold, modern prints in grey and white to keep everyone (her) happy, too. The envelopes were addressed via a jousting knight and sealed on the back with real silver wax and a custom made "G" seal stamp that matched the invitation (from HappyJewelry's Etsy shop).

We loved how they came out and mom's got a printable version of the invite for sale in her Etsy shop.

As usual, we were SUPER excited to help with the decorations. Mom designed a House of Green family crest and printed out a bunch for us to paint. We hung one on the door with a "Goodmorrow" banner mom designed to welcome our guests. On our front door, mom hung a medieval stone arch and stairway flanked by two torches. Welcome to the House of Green, ladies and gents.

It was a stormy day out and, even on a good day, the lighting in our house is akin to that of a medieval castle. So, mom had a hard time getting good photos of the decorations inside. The main wall, however, was covered to look like stone. Mom made a giant Happy Birthday Sir Kane banner, which was held up by two knights in shining armor. A few green fans popped the color up a bit and there were 6-foot long dragons swooping around from the ceiling, too. 

You'd think after Cami's birthday party streamer debacle, she would've given up on the tissue paper route.  But she chose to use streamers to drape the entire ceiling as a knight's banquet hall might be for a celebration. It took a while, but no where near the ruffled streamer time warp and, she thinks, was well worth it for the impact. It was actually pretty awesome and stayed up there for a while. 

I originally requested a menu similar to what you might find at a Renaissance Faire, including turkey legs and mead. But we ended up with Whole Foods catering kebabs (sort of like a turkey leg, right? at least it was on a jousting stick, I decided), veggies, a hummus platter, and crostini. Mom made rainbow fruit skewers (again, with the lances) and my request of squeezey yogurts made the cut. Man, I love yogurt. 

The Jolly Dragon Tavern was well stocked, as you'd expect. Beer and wine for the adults. Sparkling apple juice (or "knight's wine" as I requested), milk, juice and sparkling water for whoever wanted it. Mom made purple and green Huzzah! flags to top gray and white striped paper straws, which sat waiting in silver cups. 

Mom put together a dragon treats table full of everything dragons like to eat -- gold rocks, crystals, and gummy fish. We helped set the scene by drawing a castle on our chalkboard wall (a graffitied wall, as it ended up). And mommy's friend Ms. Liz DELIVERED AGAIN on a seriously awesome and authentic knight's castle cake that tasted unreal. She even honored my request to make it chocolate and vanilla and you know I was chowing those rice krispies treat towers for days after the party. Mom topped it with a mini Huzzah bunting and the purple fondant flag Liz made waved high. 

When we weren't cramming sugar in our mouths, we were getting tatted up. Cami and I helped mom make "Knight Ink," a legit tattoo parlor (we painted the backdrop) offering ink of both the knight and more ladylike varieties. This was a HUGE hit and almost every kid left with their arms full of tattoos. We tried to make it easy by posting examples of all the tattoos and putting a spray bottle full of water and a roll of paper towels handy for application. One of my friend's older sisters also pitched in to help ink everyone, which was super nice! 

In addition to the tattoos, we had dragon scratch art available for kids who were looking for a slightly quieter activity. It's sometimes hard to gauge whether these little art/craft projects will draw any interest and after spending a lot of time putting together the seahorse craft for Cami's party, which was mildly successful, mom was looking for something more low key. And the scratch art (from Oriental Trading Co.) did the trick. They were almost all done by the end of the party. You just never know.

We kept it pretty simple for the goody bag, too. I have a toy bucket FULL of knight "guys" and dragons and will spend hour upon hour playing with them in an endless set of scenarios. Mom finds them all over the house -- tucked under couch cushion "mountains," hiding in my shower under wash clothes, and occasionally attempting to drive the car. And I knew right away that I wanted to give some "guys" and a dragon to each friend coming to my party. Mom ordered them in bulk and I got to sort all of them into "arrangements" of two knights and one dragon for each friend -- a job I took quite seriously. While I did that, mom ironed on a House of Green crest saying "thanks" to small cotton muslin bags. In went the figurines and then out on display with a set of my most fabulous armor.

It really turned out to be my favorite birthday party yet. I'm finally at the age where I was really, really excited to have my friends over and not worried about trying to hoard my toys away from them (well, for the most part). A few simple activities for the kids worked well and the adults still got to spend plenty of time at the Jolly Dragon Tavern. Thanks so much to all my family and friends who traveled, helped with all the set-up (and clean up!), and kept the party going at the House of Green!!!