Carnival Party

Oh. My. We went to a birthday party today unlike any I've ever seen. I've heard of the parents that spend gobs of money on parties, but I've never attended one before. You know what though - I can see how this type of party can be insanely over the top (with a clown, pony or balloon animals) or done very frugally (homemade games and cheaper prizes). I have to share these ideas because I know someone out there will LOVE to steal borrow this concept, whether frugally or extravagantly.

I'm totally doing this someday. For one of the kids...we'll see who. My kids have never had a themed party, and parties like this make me feel like I'm cheating them. Isn't that bad??? Personally, I think we might do the "big party ever other year" idea and do something simple on the off years. This would be a BIG year idea.

I knew this would be something special when I saw the invitation, pictured below. (the date, time and address were on the other side) For food, they did hot dogs on the grill, chips, juice boxes, fresh popcorn, nachos and cotton candy.

There were tables set up all over the backyard with games in front and prizes (for the winners and non-winners alike) on top of each table. "Non-winner" prizes were simple things like candy or Oriental trading company type stuff, "winner" prizes were higher-dollar items like stuffed animals.

Games included a bean bag toss (which a handy dad could totally make), a ring toss, a kiddie-sized basketball shooting game, balls thrown into a big milk jug, a spinning wheel (similar to roulette in Vegas - Ryan had to play that a LOT to win his little stuffed monkey - I hope he learned a lesson about the odds of gambling!) and the randomly numbered floating ducks in a pool game.

The party favor was a jester hat for each child...even siblings! I think this party was pushed into a whole new level because all of the little details. Also, it was so organized: there was an adult at each game station accepting tickets for the games (which were handed out to each child at the beginning of the party), each child got a bag to hold all of their goodies, lunch was served right in the middle to give everyone a break from the games and over-stimulation, cupcakes and ice cream bars were already individually packaged and passed out easily...it was just a really well-planned party.

The kids had a blast and Kaylin was so hyper that it took her over an hour to fall asleep. Ryan crashed immediately - you can see the glossy eyes in the picture above. It was such a fun day!