.the princess portal.

Last night we had a Party at the palace to celebrate International Princess Day! I spent the whole weekend preparing, baking cookies and cupcakes with Clara, making strings of paper pennants to decorate the house and with the aid of Jill, Emily and Lee blowing up 60 pink and white balloons! It was a lot of fun putting up the decorations, but I never would have had time without my helpers, thank you!

The other Princesses started arriving in the late afternoon and we made a sea of cushions on the floor in front of the television so we could watch ‘The Princess Bride.’ It’s one of my favourite movies and it was a fun way to start the party. While everyone was thus engaged, I finished off making some snacks ( onigiri, cucumber sandwiches) with help from Lee and Claire. By the time the movie was over, everyone had arrived and it was time to start the games! I had far too much fun making up these games, which were based on old favourites with a Princess ‘twist.’

The first game was our Sleeping Beauty challenge. We had Clara seated at one end of the courtyard, blindfolded and in front of her was her ‘treasure’ (candy and chocolate gold coins) Everyone else had to walk from the opposite end of the courtyard towards her, trying to sneak up and steal the treasure. If Clara heard anyone moving she could point at them and they would have to start again. It was harder than it sounds!

The next game we played involved sitting in a circle and taking turns to roll a dice, whenever someone rolled a six they had to jump up, put on a tiara, feather boa and pair of opera gloves then they could start eating a block of chocolate, using a knife and fork to cut one piece at a time. As soon as the next person got a six we all yelled ’six ‘ and they had to pass the items on. It was hilarious when we had a good run of sixes and one had only just finished putting on the gloves before the next person took over.

Following this, I asked everyone to practise walking with a book on their heads and once they’d gained the knack of it we played musical chairs! It was the slowest, most careful game of musical chairs I’ve ever seen because people had to make sure the books didn’t fall off or they would be out!

Our last game was probably the most fun of the night. The girls seperated in to teams and chose one member of their team to be the ‘model’ while the others were ‘designers.’ They had to use nothing but toilet paper to create Princess outfits for their models in a time limit of 15 minutes. At the end we had a little fashion show and Sanyu and I judged the winners. We had a traditional Princess gown with puff sleeves, a Samurai Princess and a very creative entry that involved bows and a dress with a petticoat!

We ended the night by watching ‘A Little Princess’ a movie that I’ve seen a dozen times but still makes me cry! I think we were all a bit teary by the end of it.

Thank you to all the girls that came! It was a magical night and I hope you had as much fun as I did.