9189

Medieval Times -60yr- Jousting

July 2004

Kayli in Chino, CA, USA

Runner-Up

We had a "Medieval Times" birthday party for my mom's 60th birthday. We decided the atmosphere would be the most important element, so we got two rolls of Cobbelstone paper to cover the walls with.

We cleared out the living room and lined up two rows of folding tables, one with a silver table cover and one with a red cover to designate the two different teams for the games.  We also got metallic silver bags with star cut-outs and put in tea candles for lighting, along with some other candles we had in the house. This ended up being plenty of light to play the games, eat, and keep the right atmosphere.

One of the best elements was the background music. We went online to Kazaa to burn a CD; typed in 'Renessance' to find the type of music we wanted. There was plenty to choose from, but we wanted more upbeat flute, guitar (not dreary gothic sound); we found 9-12 songs that we liked so we put each song on the CD twice. It was a hit! We had silver confetti on the red table, and red confetti on the silver table. People said "Wow" when they saw the room.

I found goblets at a discount store; they were end of summer close outs; plastic white goblets. I didn't have time, but you could glue on jewels to the edge of the cups. I plan on repeating this party for my daughter when she turns 6, so I will probably add this element.  I got a cloak pattern and made a red cloak with grey trim. This was the most difficult party prop, but a friend of mine is a seamstress so with her help it only took me 3 hours!  I got some clip-art of a Coat-of-Arms and placed a "P" for Pamla in the center; made two copies and hung each one from a piece of red cloth (left over from the cloak) that hung on each side of the "Queen's Throne" a nice ornate looking chair that was already in the house.  

My sister made two columns of balloons (red & white) and we stood them on each side of the throne. This was easier than I thought (stacks of balloons are linked together with curling ribbon). Blow up three balloons of one color and tie them together by the nubby/knot part (just stretch the balloon, you don't need string) - blow up three more balloons of another color and tie them together the same way. Stack one group of three on top of the other three and wrap the curling ribbon around a couple of them so they stay together. Repeat this about 14-17 times depending on how tall you want the column. We had two people blowing up the balloons and tieing them in groups of three, and one person linking them together; it went quickly. 

I made a rectangular two layer cake with 3 iced, ice-cream cones on the four corners for the turrets; place one regular cone upside down at the corner of the cake, (I had to cut away some of the corner to make it fit on the serving platter) place another regular cone on top of that one so they are joined by the bottoms; the top sugar cone (upside down) was covered in sprinkles, the edges of the rectangle were lined with the silver Hershey's kisses, and we put a big toy dragon in the center.   

Everyone got a metallic gold paper crown to wear they were too small for the adults, and all but the smallest children, so we just put a strip of masking tape across the back. I thought some of the women would protest, but everyone was game for it.  Before dinner my sister and I made a Medieval sounding speech: "Hear Ye, Hear Ye, On this night we are gathered to celebrate the 60th year of Queen Pamla of the House of _____ (insert last name)." Blah Blah Blah, and we crowned her - applause. "Now it is time for the FEAST!"  My sister and I were the serving wenches. We wore white long sleeved button down shirts with the front shirt-tail tied into a knot, flowing skirts with one side tucked into the wasteband, tossed out rolls with unhappy looks on our faces, dropped corn on the cobb onto their plates, green beans, and pieces of chicken too (purchased whole and cooked that day from the grocery store - we cut them into pieces at home, but the store would probably do this for you too). This, in and of itself, caused lots of laughter! To keep the serving simple we had set out sticks of butter for the corn, packets of salt & pepper, and for drinks they had a choice of sweetened or unsweetened tea, or water. We made the tea earlier in the day so we had gallon jars of each on hand and ready. 

After dinner we had the games. I asked for one competitor from each team - being careful not to let them know what they were going to do ahead of time. 

"Archery competition" - toss a pool noodles through a hula-hoop. One point for the team that wins. 

"Feed the Peasant" - ask for two competitors from each team; one gets a brown paper bag the other gets 5 peanuts. The one with the most peanuts in the bag gets a point for their team.

"Catapult competition" - one competitor from each team. Hold a plastic spoon on the table top, put a marshmellow in the cup part of the spoon and fling it as far as possible. The one that goes the farthest gets a point for their team. 

"Jousting" - this was the favorite! After asking for one competitor from each team, place a strip of velcro around one competitors right arm, then another strip on the other competitors arm. Put a piece of velcro with a sticky side, onto a plastic baseball. After each competitor has the band with the plastic ball on their arm take out two stick horses and announce "Lords and Ladies, it is now time for a Joust!" This was the most fun part of the night!  We did each game twice so there could be more involvement, no one could compete twice.

There had to be a new team member for each event - again, we did not announce what they would be doing prior to coming up to the front. This gave more of a sense of anticipation, and probably worry for the competitors!  The team with the most points won "dragon skin" pencils. We found some pencils at the local party store that had a 'skin' look to them. We put some ribbon on them and gave them out.  After the games we brought in the castle/dragon cake and sang Happy Birthday. Everyone went home smiling.

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