Over the Top for the Big Top (picture heavy)

It's official...Ryan is FIVE! I think this will be a birthday to remember for everyone.

First of all, I went a little overboard. (I know, who would have thought...me!?!) Because I started planning so far in advance, all of the prep work was pretty much done last weekend. So with some extra time on my hands, I got over-excited and did a few additional things to make the party that much more special.

For instance, I took about 20 minutes and made 3 huge signs with butcher paper and tempora paint from our kids' easel.

The kids asked to help earlier this week (why wasn't I including them the whole time?!?) and we worked together on the Lollipop Tree game. This was the only game I bought supplies for; we already had everything else. I used a 40% coupon at Michael's for this foam cone for the "tree," used green paint that I already had and stuck 2 bags of Blow Pops into the tree after it was dry. About 60-70% of the lollipops had the ends of the sticks colored (kids helped do that, too) and if the player pulled out a lollipop with a colored end, they won a ticket and kept the lollipop. An easy game that cost about $6 total and the prizes are a part of the game.


Mike took yesterday off work and we spent the day rearranging furniture, setting up the games and decorating. I got the idea (on a website somewhere) to take crepe paper and create a circus tent in the front room. Starting in the middle of the ceiling, we draped crepe paper to each corner of the room and let it hang down to the ground. Voila - circus tent.

The cupcakes were also created yesterday (thanks for your help, mom!!!) and stayed fresh in the refrigerator overnight. (I baked and froze the cupcakes last weekend and criss-cross cut the mini-marshmallows throughout the week. By Friday, they just needed to be assembled.)


Kaylin turned out to be an amazing helper! For nearly an hour, she carefully placed the cut marshmallows on each frosted cupcake - she was so proud of herself. We had to "correct" the first few, but it didn't take her long to understand how they were intended to look and we couldn't tell her cupcakes from ours!

I looked on Craigslist for some last minute carnival decorations and stumbled upon an amazing, very inexpensive clown duo. Because I was WAY under budget (by almost 1/2), we hired the team to paint faces and make balloon animals for an hour. A huge crowd pleaser and we only had one child with clown-fear (and one adult...my 32 year old cousin!) - probably because the clowns didn't paint their faces white and you could see that it was real people in dress up costumes.

For decorations, I used some popcorn buckets (that we use for family movie nights) filled with popcorn on tables in the family room and even in the bathroom. We also had balloons and crepe paper sprinkled throughout the house.


As the guests arrived, they got a loot bag with their child's name on it and began playing games while waiting for their name to be called for face painting.

The Carnival games were all things we had around the house. A ring toss, bean bag tic-tac-toe, bowling, a basketball shoot, a throw-the-balls-in-the-buckets game and a clothespin drop. There was also the lollipop tree and I wrapped up animal crackers for a "Guess How Many" type game.

The guest list did NOT look this overwhelming on Evite! The kids were really well behaved, until the older boys started beating each other with balloon flowers and having sword fights with their balloon swords...then it was time to settle down to turn the tickets in for prizes.

I set up the prizes in little labeled baskets. Each prize had a different ticket value. At the end of the party, the kids turned in their tickets (they got one ticket if they lost the game, 2+ if they won) for prizes. A similar concept to Chuck E. Cheese. Prizes included stickers, temporary tattoos, rubber spiders, glow bracelets, whistles, necklaces, funky sunglasses, snake toys, bubbles and silly straws. (I found many of the prizes on clearance, so other than the $.50 snakes, everything was between $.10-$.20 each.)

For those who want to borrow from this idea, this is how the party went:
10:30 - Carnival games, balloon animals, face painting, drinks and popcorn were available. I had a sign up sheet by the face painting station so the kids didn't have to stand in line.
11:30 - While everyone ate lunch outside under canopy tents (hot dogs, nachos, iced tea and lemonade), my family helpers cleared out the games.
12:00 - The kids turned in their tickets for prizes, then Ryan opened gifts inside.
12:30 - We sang Happy Birthday, ate cupcakes and ran wild in the backyard.

Overall, this party was a blast and ran very smoothly. I hit a snag when I couldn't find the carnival tickets yesterday, so I picked up some more early today while waiting for Walmart to fill the helium balloons. That hour-long detour to my morning was the most stressful thing about this party. Arriving home 35 minutes before party time and barking orders delegating last minute items to family members is not my idea of fun. (FYI - Walmart just raised the price to fill balloons from $.25 to $.50 each. Next time, I doubt I'll battle huge Super-Walmart on party day for balloons...the grocery store was $.59 to fill each, so I'll probably bring my balloons there.)

I'll gladly do boring old swim parties for the next few birthdays until Kaylin turns five. This was fun, but I'm exhausted!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Ryan!!!