Kids Birthday Party Ideas » rapunzel

Countdown to my granddaughter’s 4th birthday party

Elsie — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:02:34 +0000

My granddaughter Mia will be 4 years old on the 6th of March. Yesterday I sat down with a piece of paper to start my checklist for planning her birthday party.

She has heard me talk so much about the Rapunzel theme party I posted about in December 2009, that she was quite happy when I suggested that we should use this theme for her party this year.

I have decided to keep you up to date with my planning and I can tell you that a preliminary guest list has been set up already. I decided on the party snacks, but still have to decide if I am going to make a faux tower/castle cake or bake two cakes and “chop and paste” them to build the cake.

This weekend I will try my hand at making plantable paper and will add some herb seeds to the paper. I will then use the paper to make invitation cards.

While I was writing down all the ideas that popped into my mind, I realised once again how easy it is to use items that would normally find their way to the dustbin to make decorations for a kids theme party.

The eggs that I bought last night, came in lovely green cartons that will be perfect for party favours or to hold candy and will fit in nicely with the colour scheme of the Rapunzel theme. It can quite easily be turned into little treasure chests with the aid of glitter and a few other odds and ends.

Empty toilet rolls (or any other empty rolls like kitchen paper rolls) can easily be turned into fun decorations by using paint, coloured paper, buttons, wool and many more. I will use a few rolls and turn them into small towers to decorate the party table.

With some imagination and creativity, you can save a lot of money when you plan your kid’s theme party.

Remember also, always have fun when you do it and don’t forget to use a checklist from the moment you start planning the party.

Rapunzel Theme Party for Kids

Elsie — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:14:43 +0000

A Rapunzel fairytale theme party is especially suited for girls from the ages of 4 years to 11 years old. At the age of 4 they can really start to understand fairy tales and at 11 they are old enough to begin to enjoy the romance one normally finds at the end of fairy tales.

Rapunzel Theme Invitation Cards:

Invitation cards can be in the form of a tower with a small cut-out for the window on the front page. Decorate the front of the card with two yellow braids made from wool or crochet cotton and dried herbs.

Another idea (and I love this one) is to make your card from paper that can be planted afterward. It will really suit the Rapunzel theme so well.

I found this very good tutorial on how to make your own paper filled with seeds at the thriftyfun site – complete with planting directions.

Decorations and welcome activities:

Obviously a tower will be one of the main features of a Rapunzel theme party. You can make one from a large, sturdy cardboard box – (ask at your local furniture shop for the type that new fridges and cookers are packed in). Using a craft knife, cut out a window on the upper part of the box; paint the box (using brown and yellow or grey and black paint) to resemble bricks.

Make two braids from thick yellow wool or yellow stockings and attach them to the inside of the “window sill”. (You can also use strands of twine or fairly thick rope). Decorate the sides of the cardboard box with lots of ivy or branches to give the illusion of thorn bushes growing against the tower walls.

Make a wig with long braids from yellow wool for every girl that will attend the party and make cardboard crowns for the boys.

Place a small table or chair inside the tower and let the birthday child hide inside on the day of the party. When the party guests arrive, they have to call “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your long hair”, whereupon the birthday child will appear in the window, let the attached braids fall down and then hand out the wigs and crowns to her party guests. The guests will then be led to the party table where they will enjoy some witches’ froth while they are waiting for Rapunzel to appear after the prince has saved her.

Rapunzel Theme Party Table Decorations/Colour Scheme

Choose green and yellow colours for the table decorations – (green for the forest and herbs in the garden, yellow for Rapunzel’s hair) – According to information and photos on Wikipedia, the rapunzel or rampion herb has lovely lilac flowers, so you can bring this into your colour scheme as well.

Decorate the table with herbs or other leaves and twigs. If you have lavender or any other purple/lilac flowers blooming in your garden, add this too.

Place a few cardboard towers filled with candy or crisps among the leaves and flowers. Download your free printable tower candy holder (right-click and choose the Save Link/Target As option to download the file to your computer)

Rapunzel Theme Party Food:

The birthday cake can be in the form of a castle or why not try to make a faux tower cake …

Make sandwiches with coloured and flavoured butters, add some sturdier food like cheesy polony and egg pies for the lads…

Click here for the Rapunzel theme food ideas:

Rapunzel Theme Party Games:

Games: If you have a sturdy wall in your garden, you can let hubby help you to attach a few rope ladders to the top edge or else just make a few knots in thick rope and attach firmly to tree branches.

The party guests can also play hide and seek and adapt the call of the enchantress and the prince (“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair”) to suit their names. The child that is out, must then go into the cardboard box tower and “let down” his or her hair – (the braids that were attached to the window sill).

Rapunzel Theme Party Activities:

Keep the party guests busy with some craft activities that can also double up as party favours…

As always, have fun planning your kid’s theme party!

Rapunzel Theme Party Activities

Elsie — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:02:15 +0000

Rapunzel spent many years of her life locked up in a tower, so I think the enchantress taught her quite a lot of crafts to keep busy with during these years. (In the fairy tale, Rapunzel did ask the prince to bring her skeins of silk so she could weave a ladder to get out of the tower… she must have learned the art of weaving and maybe a few other crafts too).

As the whole story of Rapunzel began with the herb that grew in the enchantress’s garden, activities like making miniature gardens or using items from nature will fit in well with the Rapunzel theme.

Here are some ideas:

Miniature gardens and terrariums – here’s an easy way to make a terrarium:

Large (32 oz.) plastic drink bottles, empty
2 or 3 small plants
Artificial flowers or bugs
Sticks
Small stones
Potting soil

Soak the bottle in very warm water for a few minutes. Then empty it, pull off the colored bottom part and peel off the label. Clean the glue out of the bottom part. Put a layer of small rocks in the bottom part. Put potting soil over the rocks and then put in your plants. Be sure to press the roots of the plants down. Add more soil around your plants to fill the planter. Arrange pretty stones, tiny sticks, or tiny toy animals around the plants. Use a sharp knife to cut the top off the clear part of the bottle (about 4″ from the cap). Turn the clear part upside down. Slip the cut edges into the planter to make a dome top. You can glue an artificial flower or bug to the dome for decoration.

Let them make pictures with seeds like dried peas, beans and grains of all shapes, sizes and colours. Let them make their own patterns or print out pictures from colouring books to use as patterns.
Pebble painting
Leaf Prints or pictures made from leaves
Older girls will love to make potpourri or sachets filled with potpourri

or they can even make lavender bottles or wands if you have lavender in your garden.

As a last resort, you can always just wrap a small terra cotta pot and some herb seeds in cheerful cellophane and tie it off with some brightly colored ribbons after you have given the party guests a lesson on sowing seeds and nurturing plants as they grow. Herb seeds grow so quickly that they will see results in a day or two.

Download your free printable seed envelopes (right-click and choose the Save Link/Target As option to download the file to your computer)

Return to the main page of Rapunzel Theme Party For Kids

Kids Party Theme Ramblings for Moms (and Dads)

Elsie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:59:10 +0000

I must admit, since my visit to Germany in August this year and my subsequent stay in Rapunzel’s Tower in Clarens, I am a little obsessed with castles. To be more specific, with the towers of old castles.

I love the textures of the different bricks and building materials, the weathered look, the moss and other strange stuff that grows on these walls.

It reminds me of all the stories I read as a child, not only of war and poverty, but also of romance; beautiful princesses, handsome princes, fairy godmothers and wicked stepmothers, and always, but always, happy endings.

Even in today’s modern world, kids still love these stories. I think in a way we need stories with happy endings even if we just use it for party themes; we all have to take a break from normal living and what better way than to have a party on your birthday.

I have been trying to come up with a theme for a Rapunzel party for the last two weeks… take a look at the date of my last post… I think sometimes one of the most difficult things for a parent is to come up with an appropriate theme for their kid’s birthday party…

They grow up sooo fast; one day they like Winnie the Pooh, the next they like Spider Woman or Spider Man; what a vast difference… from a cuddly little bear to this alien eight-legged “thing” that can climb walls and do impossibly human tricks…

and then we as parents are bombarded with stories about how bad it is for your kid to believe in fairy tales… and I must admit… these old stories are rife with crime… but maybe we should take this with a touch of salt… did the victims in these stories not always survive? Snow White awakes after the handsome prince give her a kiss…. jeez, did they not all awake after a kiss???

When we have children and raise them to our values should we not also include a little “make-believe” in our teachings? Our responsibility lies in teaching them about the real world – to make them aware of crime and to always be on the look-out for things that can hurt them, but we should never, ever take away the “magic” element in life…

There is so much good in life, we just have to look past the bad things that happen and if it not touches our lives, teach our children to be thankful.

So hopefully, in my next post I will tell you how to organise a Rapunzel party… does any of today’s girls have these “elle” long hair… just think how much pain this girl must have suffered when the enchantress climbed up her long golden tresses – I wonder what she ate every day – sandwiches? hmm, do you know how you can turn simple sandwiches into good party food by using cookie cutters???

Last word… parties are about fun and imagination… who cares if it is true???

Have fun planning your kid’s theme party.

Oh yes… click on the image to open in a new window, right click and save to your pc so your kids can start colouring their Rapunzel Tower adventure.

Rapunzel’s Tower – A fairy tale party for grown-ups

Elsie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:03:39 +0000

I know this is a site for kids party themes, but sometimes grownups can really feel like kids too when they celebrate their birthdays…

Quite a few days have gone by since my last post but I think I will be forgiven if I tell you the reason for it. Since it was my birthday on the 27th of October, my friend from a far-far away land came to whisk me away to be “locked up” in a tower for one day and one night.

The tower is surrounded by mountains and a few kilometers from the small town of Clarens in the Free State Province of South Africa and although there are no wild thornbushes and a forest that you have to hack through to get to the tower, the feeling of adventure that takes hold of you on the way to the tower, is enough to get you into the mood for a party.

Best of all, you don’t even have to think about a theme for your birthday party because the moment you drive through the gate and follow the winding road that takes you to the entrance to the tower YOU are the theme… a fairy tale theme for a grownup.

I was planning on having my party outside amongst the lovely red roses and other plants that grow in the garden but the late afternoon sunshine and blue skies soon made way for clouds and a few hours of rain. It fitted in so well with the fairy tale story of Rapunzel and being locked up in a tower.

However, as always with good planning, it was quite easy to take the party inside from where we had a lovely view over the mountains whilst enjoying the simple but very tasty party food that consisted of home-made bread rolls, smoked salmon, black olives, different cheeses, crackers and dips. We also enjoyed some wine my friend brought as a gift – it is produced in the wine area of Gols near the Neusiedlersee in Austria.

If going up and down the stairs to see all that this tower had to offer, can be thought of as party games, then yes, we had a lot of fun playing hide and seek and calling each other as we went our own ways sometimes to take a closer look at the many beautiful items in the tower. Maybe Rapunzel did not have such a bad life after all…

Taking photos was the main activity but relaxing and enjoying the view in a bath 12 metres above ground level, was definitely the highlight of the party activities.

There was no goodie bag to take home but for once it did not matter…LOL

A birthday party should be fun and spending it in such an enchanting place and being able to relive the fantasy of Rapunzel’s fairytale, has made my birthday a very special occasion.

Visit the Castle in Clarens site for more information about Rapunzel’s Tower