A Knights Party

Hear ye, Hear ye, Noah Pierce just turned 6 and decided that the best way to celebrate his birthday was to have a knights party! The castle was prepared...

and Sir Noah awaited the arrival of his guests.

We put the knights-in-training straight to work decorating their shields. We had a few cool designs for them to choose from and with the help of a little carbon paper, markers, jewels, and stickers, those shields were looking good in no time!

Although knights usually can rely on archers during a battle it never hurts to know how to shoot an arrow.

This activity proved to be a bit tricky though some of the kids started to get the hang of it after a few tries.

Next came the jousting tournament. All I can say is that it was a brilliant move on my part to invite my friend Rachel and her son to the party...she's a preschool teacher and knew how to get these boys going! All lined up and ready to race!

Look at Noah's tremendous horsemanship! Way to make that horse take the turn.

Even I got in on the action. Poor Brody never stood a chance against my mad skills.

After we ran the jousting tournament a few times (because the boys AND the parents loved it), the little guys had to face Sir Xander, the evil Shadow Knight.  Once a boy was tagged by the Shadow Knight, he was frozen. 

To get out of the "frozen dungeon", a fellow trainee would have to crawl through his legs, thus freeing him.

One last game to remove all the wiggles was "Catch the Dragon's Tail". All the boys lined up with hands on shoulders and, without letting go of the person in front of them, the first boy, "the head", would try to tag the last boy, "the tail". Each boy got a turn at each place on the dragon and it proved to be quite entertaining.

Look at that tail moving!

Noah's big idea for his party was to have the boys decorate a gingerbread knight.

Noah loaded his up with frosting and toppings and completely grossed me out when he proceeded to eat most of it.

To complete their training, the boys had to collect all the dragon eggs in the land.

We then passed around the golden eggs but unfortunately some of the boys were placed under a magical enchantment. The surviving knight was able to break the spell and each boy received a miniature dragon in his egg.

The boys definitely proved that they were ready to be true knights and were each knighted by Sir David and received their very own sword.

They hurried outside to put those swords to good use!

The boys quickly hurried over when they heard the news that the dragon had found out that they had taken all her eggs and was ready to attack. Each little knight faced the magnificent black dragon!

If a sword doesn't work one can always just try to jump on the dragon!

After the battle with the dragon it was definitely time for some cake and ice cream. My talented friend Tara made the most awesome cake for Noah's party.

I could not get over the amazing detail, especially the dragon's face!

Noah's friends started singing Happy Birthday but Noah just blew out the candles and started licking them before the song was even over.

I had such a hard time cutting into the cake but the little knights all gathered around me and started chanting, "Cut off his head! Cut off his head!" So I did. They got to enjoy the yummy cake out on the deck; we couldn't have asked for better weather.

The three kids with the Black Knight! It was definitely another fun party!