How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 5

The following post is part 5 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Friday- Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing

Our last day of camp was almost like a first day, since we had to switch rooms to accommodate another unanticipated event.  We stayed after camp for an extra hour and a half on Thursday, transferring all of our decorations and setting up our princess party room.  Here is a picture of the new room, which we ended up loving even more than our first room.  One thing that made it better was having a water fountain- or bubbler as we say here in WI- and bathroom right outside the door instead of down the hall.

Don’t you love the display shelf for our Parable Princesses books?

All week long, the girls had been anticipating our special dress up party day. All the girls were invited to wear their prettiest dresses, and we planned to paint their nails and faces and eat cupcakes and ice cream.

As they entered, we took pictures of each girl in front of the castle decoration.  Once everyone had arrived, we played Pin the Gem on the Crown.  We simplified our approach by drawing a crown on a big piece of paper and having the girls design and cut out their own gems.  Then, we blindfolded each girl and had the other girls safely direct her to the crown, where she stuck her jewel on with double-sided tape.

After our game, all the girls sat in the middle of the room for our story time.  Today’s story was about Princess Joy; it is actually the first Princess Parables book, but we saved it for last because of our party plans.  Joy is a lovely princess, and she is so looking forward to the party her sisters are planning for her, only none of the guests can come!  At first discouraged, Joy instead decides to invite all of the children from the kingdom, be they poor or rich.  She finds that it is indeed better to give than to receive.

As a group, we discussed how we can give without expecting anything in return, and the girls offered up answers about helping around the house, giving money to those less fortunate, sharing their toys, and the like. In that moment, I realized how much I would miss these special girls and their sweet hearts.  It was a busy week, full of fun and activity, but on this last day, I determined to slow down and just take time to enjoy the girls, and that is what I did.

We directed the girls back to the tables and distributed our party food.  The girls chatted happily as they ate their cupcakes and ice cream, fruit salad, and apple juice.  This Wilton Princess Cupcake Stand Kit (which includes the cupcake liners and crown decorations) was perfect for our party, and it is affordable and reusable.

After we got the girls all cleaned up, it was time for the beauty treatment!  Kira, Caitlin, and I divided up: Kira and I painted toenails, and Caitlin became the master face painter (I found a Princess Face Painting kit at Michaels on clearance from $24.99 to $9.99-hurray!)  Here are a few pictures of our pretty princesses:

The face painting took longer than our camp was scheduled, but the few remaining girls and parents were happy to stay a little longer.  As the girls left, we gave them each a gift bag (I just used clear cellophane bags with pink and purple tissue paper) filled with foam stickers, play rings, Ring-Pops (I got them for 30 cents on clearance at Walgreens!) , balloons, and these Princess Stationery Sets.  Those that remembered also took their fancy drinking glasses which I found for 50 cents each at Goodwill; it was so cute to see them acting so dainty with these as they drank their water and juice throughout the week.

Final Thoughts

So much of our week involved doing and organizing projects with the girls that it wasn’t until Friday that I finally knew everyone’s name without hesitation and got to really relax.  The one-on-one time I got to spend with each of them as I painted their toenails was a special blessing.

My highlight of the week came when we talked about Jesus being our best friend, and a few of the girls called out, “Jesus is my best friend!”  My prayer is that He will continue to be just that as these precious girls grow into godly young women who love and serve Him.

I hope you enjoyed this series and that it sparked some inspiration for your own princess party or camp plans.  I highly recommend the Princess Parables books.  Be sure to get one, or the whole set, for your special princess. They are a wonderful way to introduce them to being a daughter of the true King.

For more ideas that I didn’t get a chance to use (but wish I had), check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 4

The following post is part 4 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Thursday- Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart

When the girls arrived, they found a plain princess dress on card stock to decorate as they liked.  We then helped to cut out the dresses and provided them with princess cut-out dolls and more cut-out dresses to play with. Let me say that these were a huge hit, but they are also the most time-consuming thing we had to prepare.  Cutting out dolls and assorted dresses for fourteen girls takes a couple of hours, and I had my 7yo daughter, 9yo son and my two camp helpers assisting with the project over the course of the week. In my opinion, it was totally worth it, though.

We sent each girl home with a doll, which each of them named (Princess Grace was a popular choice, but I particularly liked Princess Rainbow Blossom and Princess Patience), and the dress they had decorated.  I meant to send an extra outfit or two along with them, too, but I forgot.  This craft alone took up the first 45 minutes of our day, and we had to coax the girls over to story time.

Our story involved Princess Charity, the youngest of the five sisters.  She is impetuous but has a big heart, and by saving a young boy who is hurt on the other side of the road- which is also the neighboring kingdom’s forbidden territory- she brings peace to the two kingdoms.  Her story echoes the familiar Good Samaritan story found in Luke 10:25-37.  We talked about who was the youngest in their families, if any had ever been horseback riding (Charity’s pet is a horse), and we covered some of the discussion questions available with the story.

We then made ribbon wands out of dowels, washi tape (I found sparkly dark pink and gold washi tape in the clearance bin at Michaels), and ribbon, along with these adorable sparkly styrofoam balls (I found a bag of them for 50 cents at Goodwill- score!)

This was a putsy project that required the three of us camp leaders to do all of the work; the girls simply selected the colors they wanted for their tape and ribbons.  Here’s a tip, though: instead of wrapping the tape around and around the dowel, wrap it once lengthwise around the dowel; you will save on tape, and it turns out much smoother.  It is an exact, tight fit around the thinnest dowel available at Michaels.

For snack, we had apple slices (since horses love apples) and pretzels (since all the girls like them).  The girls ended the day with their coloring sheets.

Tomorrow, we will cover the last day of princess camp, with Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing and a party!

For more princess camp or party ideas, check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 3

The following post is part 3 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Wednesday- Princess Hope and the Hidden Treasure

Today, we started with our story.  Princess Hope, the eldest of the five princesses, finds her grandmother’s lost ring and is determined to buy it back.  She is willing to sell all that she has- even her pet lamb!- to reclaim it.  Once it is in the possession of the sisters, they discover a riddle inscribed on the band, which leads them on a treasure hunt through the castle.  The story is inspired by the parables found in Matthew 13:44-46.

Following our story, we embarked on our own treasure hunt.  We sent one table of girls at a time, while the girls at the other two tables remained and colored pictures from the story. Those hunting followed three, simple clues which led them to a special box (I just used a pretty photo box).  Inside, each girl received a “treasure”: a sparkly compact mirror (I bought them in pink and purple for $1.50 each at Michaels), a fancy plastic ring (like the ones in their sand dig from Monday), and a scroll featuring the parable verses (printed on plain paper and wrapped with ribbon).

The girls LOVED the mirrors!  I was truly surprised; in fact, I almost didn’t use them, thinking perhaps they were too young for such things.  I reminded them that when they look in that mirror, they would see one of God’s princesses, who is beautiful both inside and out.

We made ribbon necklaces for our craft, and again, our trusty glue gun saved the day.  The Mod Podge Acrylic Shapes did not all have holes to pull the ribbon through, so Caitlin (our summer camp intern) took the time to hot glue the ribbons to the back of the shapes while I took the girls outside to play on the playground. The necklaces turned out beautifully, and I am now in love with Mod Podge Waterbase Sealer, Glue and Finish (8-Ounce), CS15066 Extreme Glitz, although it did leave us with sparkly hands. :)

For snack, we made the most adorable fruit castles, which Kira (my other helper) assembled for me.  Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my phone, so I don’t have any pictures from the day, and Kira’s castles were even prettier than the one pictured here.  The girls ate them all up, along with pretzels and water.

Tomorrow, we will look at Day 4: Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart.

For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

How to Host a Princess Camp Day 2

The following post is part 2 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Last week, I had the special privilege- and challenge- of coordinating and leading Once Upon A Time Camp at our church.  For two hours each afternoon, I welcomed fourteen adorable girls, grades PreK-2, to celebrate being God’s princesses. You can read about the theme and outline for our camp, as well as our first day’s activities here.

Tuesday- Princess Faith’s Mysterious Garden

Today, when the girls arrived, they received a small clay pot, a disposable plate dotted with paints like an artist’s palette, a cup of water, and a paper towel.  They then set about painting the pots with great enthusiasm.  Caitlin and Kira (my helpers for the week) helped to paint small flowers on some of the girls’ pots, while I oversaw the project, cleaning up inevitable spills and replacing paper towels.

Pre-painting set up as the girls began to arrive.

We left our pots to dry and headed over to our story time area.  First, we reviewed Princess Grace’s story from yesterday, which the girls remembered with alacrity, before beginning Princess Faith’s story.  The mysterious garden is a parallel to the parable of the seed and the sower found in Matthew 13:1-23.  We chatted throughout the story about our favorite animals (each Parable Princess has her own pet), flowers (roses were a clear winner), and other topics related to the story.  We finished by reading the corresponding parable, which several of the girls were familiar with, before heading outside for our activity.

Here’s a few of our princesses ready for story time.

Today, we played Pass the Magical Wand (aka: Hot Potato).  We used bubble wands (one for each girl), and when the music stopped, the girl holding the “magical wand” got to take it and make bubbles in the yard.  The music we used for the week was a beautiful CD that set the tone perfectly.  It is called … such stuff as Dreams: A Lullaby Album for Children and Adults – 2 CD Set; I was fortunate to find it at our library.  We played it everyday, and both the mothers and the girls commented on how lovely it was.

Once all of the girls had a wand and were joyfully running around the yard making bubbles, Caitlin entertained them further with her giant bubble maker.  The girls took turns making humongous bubbles, even dumping out their own wands for more bubble solution.

As they tired of the bubbles, I gathered them in groups of four or five and helped them plant flowers in their painted pots, in honor of our mysterious garden story.  They dug out soil with small, plastic shovels and selected a flower from the packs I picked up at Stein’s.

We then headed back inside, where we colored our story pictures for the day and ate snack.  After yesterday’s disappointing effort, I kept it simple with Pepperidge Farm Princess Cheddar Goldfish(they are pink), pretzels, water, and carrots (I coaxed the girls into eating carrots by reminding them of Faith’s pet rabbit who loves to eat carrots- they were sold!)

Soon after the parents arrived, and the girls went home with their potted flowers and pictures.  It was a wonderful day and went without a hitch, making it one of my favorites.

Tomorrow, we will look at Day 3: Princess Hope and the Hidden Treasure

For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth. 

How to Host a Princess Camp, Day 1

The following post is part 1 of a 5 part series by guest blogger Aimee Mae Riley. Aimee held a princess camp for her church. Aimee used the Princess Parable Series in her camp curriculum and shares the details of the camp below for our benefit. Enjoy!

Last week, I had the special privilege- and challenge- of coordinating and leading Once Upon A Time Camp at our church.  For two hours each afternoon, I welcomed fourteen adorable girls, grades PreK-2, to celebrate being God’s princesses.  Little did I know that ten hours of camp time equated to 30+ hours of prep time.  Basically, princess camp was my part-time job for the first two weeks of summer, but it was all worth it!

For those of you who might be considering such a camp for your own church or community, I thought I would share what I came up with, in hopes that it will help you save a little time on the preparation end of things.  So as not to overwhelm you, I will break up the post into five parts, each covering one of our camp days and the resources we used.  (FYI: There will be several affiliate items in these posts, all of which I used and highly recommend.)

The basis for our camp was a series of books our children’s ministry director came across months ago.  Called The Princess Parables, they feature five princess sisters: Grace, Faith, Hope, Charity, and Joy.  Right away, I loved that we would not be dealing with the standard Disney princess fare and that I could introduce the girls to princesses who embodied the character and beauty that comes from knowing God.

My general outline for each day included: a craft, story time (each book has discussion questions you can download off the site), an activity, a snack (of course!), and a coloring page from the corresponding Princess Parables Coloring Set.

Before I give you a daily review of camp, here are some pictures of the room I decorated for camp.  I found most of my materials at either Michael’s or on Amazon, along with a few scores from Goodwill. My budget was $325; each camper paid $25 to attend.

I ordered the princess tablecloths off Amazon. I found the poms at Michaels and the swirlies hanging from them at Goodwill.

This castle decoration was so pretty! It stands about 5′ tall and made a great backdrop for pictures. It is in two pieces that don’t align perfectly, so you have to line them up yourself. I used double-sided tape, which worked well.

Let Princess Camp begin!

Monday- Princess Grace and the Little Lost Kitten (The Princess Parables)

It was so fun that first day to hear the “ooh”s and “aah”s from the moms and girls as they arrived.  The decorations were a real hit and helped to create the right ambiance for princess camp.  Each girl sat at a table and decorated a name tag for their place.  I let them write their own names, in the spirit of Ramona Quimby from Beezus and Ramona, which we recently read aloud at home. In retrospect, I wish I had written their names on the cards (I just used pink and purple cardstock, folded in half lengthwise) ahead of time because some were unrecognizable, impeding my ability to remember the girls’ names quickly.

Then, we sat in our story area on the other side of the room, where I read Princess Grace’s story to them.  I stopped along the way to ask engaging questions, which they were all eager to answer.  At the end of each story, there is a personal note from the princess herself, followed by the scriptural parable the story is drawn from.  By the time I got to the scripture, though, interest was beginning to wane and it was hard to keep their attention.  We wrote down some of the words we learned to describe each princess on a dry erase board each day, and moved on.

Next, we decorated tiaras!! The girls had so much fun with this craft, and we had tons of jewels for them to glue on. I bought these tiaras, which are adjustable and come in pink, blue, and purple.  (One thing to note: the hot glue gun became our best friend this week; we used it almost every day.  Regular glue just didn’t do the trick keeping the gems adhered to the foam crowns.)

Here’s my little princess Skyler with her tiara and popcorn.

After the tiaras, we headed outside, where we played “Princess Says” (aka: Simon Says) and “Princess, Princess, Queen” (aka: Duck, Duck, Goose) and dug for treasure in a sand-filled basket (I added stickers, real coins, gems, and Fun Express Colorful Rhinestone Rings (6 Dozen)). The girls LOVED digging for treasures and asked if we could do it again.

Inside once more, we ate snack, which I was really excited about.  I made Princess Popcorn; it was so pretty and tasty! (I popped kernels on the stove, rather than using microwave popcorn- it’s one of the 10 worst foods you can eat.)  I also bought special juice (Ocean Spray 100% Cran-Grape and Cran-Raspberry).  However, I learned right away that simple is better than special.  Some of the girls did not like the sweet, pink popcorn, and even more of them did not care for cranberry juice- duh!  There is a reason the Sunday School teachers always serve apple juice and graham crackers: it works!  I still recommend the popcorn, though, as those who did like it, loved it (including me!)

We finished with the coloring sheets from the Grace’s story.

All in all, it was a great first day, but I have to admit, snack threw me for a loop.  Thank goodness for my amazing helpers: summer camp intern Caitlin and sweet, 12yo volunteer Kira.  I wouldn’t have survived without them this week!

For more ideas, you can also check out my Pinterest Princess Camp board.

Tomorrow, we will cover Day 2: Princess Faith’s Mysterious Garden (possibly my favorite day).

Aimee Mae Riley is a mother of 5 children from Wisconsin. You can read her blog at Whispers of Worth.