Sullivan’s Royal Five-ness Birthday Party

We partnered with Fairytale Town and Raley’s in exchange for a blog post and my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own.

For the past year and a half, our life hasn’t allowed for big birthday parties for the boys. We’ve had so much going on, crazy work schedules, timing, etc. Party planning is one of my favorite ways of expressing my creativity though and I had to get back to it in some way, shape, or form.

Sullivan is a summer baby. He spent a majority of the school year being invited to and attending parties which, of course, means he’s been planning his royal birthday party all. Year. Long. Haha!

I knew that in order to not completely overextend myself with the Summer Series going on, kid’s camps, and summer trips, I had to outsource some of the aspects of this party. What we ended up planning was pretty rad, if I do say so myself.

The Theme

His Royal Five-ness came from my love of puns that is accidentally (not so accidentally? You decide, ha!) being passed down to my kids. Sullivan’s vision for this royal birthday party was to have a giant throne to sit on. He was not disappointed.

The Venue

What is a royal birthday party without a castle? We were so thrilled to be able to partner with Fairytale Town in Sacramento on a birthday party in King Arthur’s Castle.

If you aren’t local to Sacramento, Fairytale Town is a 3.5 acre park and outdoor children’s museum in William Land Park. It is beautifully landscaped with slides, climbing opportunities, and a menagerie of animals all inspired by your family’s favorite literature. You can water the plants in Mr. McGregor’s garden, climb on the cheese that stands alone, take a trip through Sherwood Forest, run laps on the crooked mile, and visit all the animals in Farmer Brown’s barn. It truly is a magical place where kids learn through play.

Promoting the imagination, creativity and education of children.

Fairtytale Town Mission Statement

For the royal birthday party, we were given exclusive access to King Arthur’s castle. We were able to invite 30 people, and had two designated party hosts for the entire 1.5 hour party. It began with a bridge ceremony where King Sullivan got crowned and the festivities began! The hosts, Jade and Anthony, were one of my favorite parts about the whole thing! They were dressed in medieval costume and played their parts so well. They were incredibly helpful with set-up, clean up, and keeping the flow of the party going. While opening presents, they helped Sullivan open his gifts and cards while noting who brought what so we can easily send thank you cards. I got to sit and watch which was such a break from my normal manic party do-it-all mode. Not to mention they had candles, a lighter, scissors on hand––all things I forgot to bring.

With our party package, we got to choose two activities for the attendees to do during the party. We chose face painting and photo prop fun. Face painting was wonderful and I think the kids really enjoyed it. If I were to choose again, I would choose one of the other hands on crafts––wand, sword, or crown making or pin the tail on the frog prince. I think the photo props were fun but they just turned in to toys for some of the younger kids.

On top of the great service and fun activities, all of the guests were given passes to enjoy the park after the party. It was so fun to keep the party going with all of Sullivan’s favorite people and on top of that, the weather was so gorgeous.

The Food

I touched on my busy week a little but the week of the party was truly insane. It was Session 2 of the Summer Series, I had school commitments to fulfill, two different camps for the boys, and work deadlines. On top of all that, Sully had a fever flare in the days leading up to his party. There was absolutely no way I was going to be making anything from scratch.

Raley’s to the party rescue. I reached out to them about catering and boy, did they deliver. We were able to provide a full lunch for our guests complete with a spinach dipper platter, charcuterie platter, fruit platter and four different varieties of sandwiches including triangle sandwiches for the kids.

It was so easy to order through their Raley’s Party Planner on their website. All they need is at least 24 hour notice, you can pick up your entire party menu at your local Raley’s and you are good to go! You can also place your order at the Fresh Deli counter if in person is more your thing. I can’t even tell you how easy it was.

More than the ease of ordering though, is the great quality of food. Raley’s offers a wide variety of selections, including many healthy options for every diet. My personal favorite was the pesto turkey focaccia sandwich, so dang good, I’m drooling just thinking about it!

The Desserts

Raley’s came through yet again with the cake. I walked in to that bakery having zero clue as to what I wanted. They were able to work with me, talk me through my options, and we were able to decide on a cupcake cake which ended up being perfect for us. The birthday boy still got to blow out candles on a huge cake (his dream come true) and it was easy to pass out individual cupcakes to guests with minimal mess and clean up. Win, win!

The favors were these beautifully decorated cookies by Crystal at SugarBSweets. She was so accommodating and helpful when I basically dumped this idea on her last minute. Crystal is based out of Vacaville, California. She is a mom who started her business to put her children through private school. She is so talented! Not only were the cookies beautiful but they tasted delicious too. Check her out on Instagram!

The Decor

We were lucky that King Arthur’s Castle provided much of the decor and ambiance to match the party theme. I supplemented with themed shield plates, knight party hats and crowns that were a fun touch to put around the Knight’s round table.

Shield Plates | Knight Party Hats | Crowns

Letterboard | Happy Birthday Banner

We are so happy with how everything turned out. Fun was had with all of Sullivan’s favorite people. And don’t worry, in true Sullivan fashion, he is already planning his 6th birthday at a different spot in Fairtytale Town, naturally.

All photos by Erin Louise Photography.