Need Ideas - Dorr, MI

S.; oriental trading magaizine check them out online too, D. s

Set it up like a carnival with stations set up around the edge. Games: duck pond with a little wading pool and mark lettersvor numbers on the bottom ofvrubber ducks. Baloon popping with darts, depends on age of kids. Beanbag toss through a piece of woidcwith holes cut in it and painted up. Have someone doingvface painting, and someone doing animal baloons, pass out helium baloons. Hang baloons and streamers from trees all around to create a festive atmosphere.
Three legged race. Egg toss, or race with hard boiled eggs and spoons. Water baloon toss. Hope some of this helps have a great party.

If your doing a carnival circus theme, you should get some clowns. I used to work for a place called the Clown Connection. They go all over and they work with your price range on what you need and what you want to spend. It can be huge with tents and games or just a clown with face painting and balloon animals. The busines phone is ###-###-####.

Hey S.,

Check out familyfun.com. They have lots of party ideas that's where I got all of mine when I did the same theam.

I did a circus themed party for my oldests' first birthday :-D

I had cotton candy flavored Ice cream, and a clown cake that I made I baked it in a large mixing bowl and decorated it with melted white icing (just pour it over the cake and allow it to set up gives the cake a smooth finish) and made the face out of candy (circus peanut ears, pull and peel twizzlers for the hair, a blow pop for the nose, I sliced the bottom off two large gum drops for the eyes, small gum balls around the base of the cake for a collar and more pull and peel for the mouth.) All the excess candy from the cake making I put into bags as favors, along with Kazoos, yo-yo's, and a free ticket to a traveling circus that just happened to be in town the next weekend.

You can get a ton of cheap stuff from Oriental Trading Company on line. Also try dollar stores and party supply stores. If you can rig up some kind of circus tent and decorate it, that's be great. Maybe a clown (though some little kids find them terrifying) or someone who can make balloon animals? You guys could even dress up like clowns or have someone else do it without making it too realistic.

We did a carnival theme for my son's birthday last year and it was a hit, the games especially. We had a duck pond (for the little ones), fortune teller (which was just a fish bowl full of fortune cookies), balloon toss, and the most popular, pie in the face. My husband took the hit for that one. It was really a lot of fun. Good luck with your party!

You can make a "big top" cake with half-sphere pan (you know, like half of a ball) You can probably buy one at Michaels.

Decorate it with white icing. Use red licorice whips as the stripes going down the tent. Stick a multi-colored candy cane out the top to be the tent pole. Then cut a fruit roll-up to be the flag on the pole. Make a circle around the pole and along the base of the cake with big ball-type candy - like fruit sours, maybe. Then around the bottom half of the cake, make a line of animal crackers between the stripes (you would need to space the stripes wide enough for the animals to fit).

If you need a lot of cake due to a lot of kids, you could supplement with lion cupcakes - just make a mane around the circle of the cupcake with candy corns and draw a simple eyes, nose, mouth with brown icing.

As part of the party favors, don't forget the circus/animal crackers boxes.

Paint used vegetable cans in bright colors and use them to make the carnival can toss game (where you throw a ball at a pyramid of cans.

If you are considering a bouncy house, a friend of mine actually bought one brand new for much cheaper than cost of renting one. I also just looked on Craigslist for you and saw two different bouncy houses just posted yesterday for under $100 each.

Have fun.

Hi S.,
We had a carnival for my 11 year old and 24 of her friends. It was a blast! She is very "green" so we tried to use items from the house for the games. Veggie cans and a baseball for a knock down game, Basketball shoot out, Pie in the face (you need to weigh dowm the tin pie pan with lg marshmellows to get to fly further), Nurf darts and a home made cardboard target with holes, hula hoop contest, tug-of-war (I think the adults liked this one best) my best friend dressed up as a fortune teller and had a sitting with each kid. We told her a little about the kids in advance so they all thought she was the real thing! They still have no Idea that she was auntie kim! We had a ring toss with full water bottles, and of course the duckie game. We made hot dogs, snow cones, I pre made pop corn and put it in the cute carnival bags you can get for like 10 cents, and for a favor for each kid to take home was a .25 cent gold fish in a little glass bowl I got them from Michaels with the 50% off coupons, we pot a ribon in it with a thank you note and a small packet of gold fish food. we also got pre packaged cotten candy from Costco, because making it is a HUGE mess.
Good Luck! Have Fun and clean up the mess the NEXT day! :o)

Ditto on Oriental Trading online. If you sign up for their emails they usually send you a free shipping coupon too. They have a ton of stuff.

www.orientaltrading.com is the website

Check Familyfun.com. They always have great party theme ideas complete with invitations to make, games, food, cake, etc. I believe they had a carnival theme.

Have fun at the party!

That is so cool. The balloons and the darts are always a favorite and would be pretty cheap. Also the 3 cans that you hit with a baseball. Good Luck, this sounds like a lot of fun Oh yeah what about ducks in a small kiddie pool with the numbers of the prizes on the bottoms.