Jackson and Nathan's Carnival Party

Sometime around Thanksgiving, my friend Heather and I decided to give Jackson and her son, Nathan, a mutual birthday party. We knew we wanted to do a carnival party, and spent the next couple of months looking for inspiration, and deciding on what we wanted/didn't want. We decided to keep it more a backyard carnival vs. circus. So, no clowns, no elephants, no ring leaders... just games, prizes, and good food. Here were our two main sources of inspiration, and where we got most of the game ideas:

Martha Stewart Carnival Party

Parents Magazine Carnival Party

From there, we looked for an invitation that we both liked, but almost all of the ones we found were too circus-y. So, we decided to make one. My mom gave me a Cricut for Christmas, and I LOVE it. I am surprised it still works after how much I used it for the party. You can cut out any shape/letter/picture that your heart desires. Well, that is, if you buy the cartridges you want. Luckily, there was a cartridge perfect for the party that had lots of shapes/font that we could use for the invites and the signs.


And here is the enclosure card -
We asked that everyone bring a small cash donation (to help out a deserving family) instead of bringing gifts for the boys.

When the kids first arrived at the party, we had them do a craft. Decided to do a frame and let them use glitter glue, tickets, pomoms, and a carnival sign to decorate it. Cut the carnival banners with the Cricut. Glued some magnets on the back.


We made up some samples before.

They took their frames home, and we will be sending them their photos with a thank you note sometime soon. Guess I should get on that!

Heather's mom made the boys' shirts. We used some extra fabric from the photo booth backdrop, and then she monogrammed their names.


Here's the paper chain I got a little carried away with. Used all the scrap paper from all the other decorations. If I hadn't run out of one of the patterned paper, it might have covered the whole house.

After they finished their frames,
we gave them each a bag to collect tickets and let them loose in the backyard.

Outside, we had Peanuts, Cotton Candy, and Popcorn. Wish I would have gotten a picture of the peanut bags, but here's a link. I love the site.


Heather made all the cotton candy cones from the scrapbook paper and then cut little holes out of the boxes to stand them in it. Worked perfectly!

Our friend Jessica let us borrow her popcorn maker.
The popcorn was a hit!



We had 8 different games, plus face painting & tattoos.
Colin put rebar in the ground, and then PVC pipe over that. He drilled holes in the top of the PVC and threaded rope through them. We then just used clothespins to attached the colorful plastic backdrops for each booth. The wind was a bit challenging, but lots of bricks were used to hold it all down. It was a gorgeous day.

I made the signs for each "booth" with cardstock and my cricut.


The Games...

Pin Drop
Go Fish
Plinko
Duck Pond
Dig 4 Gold
Spray Away
Tin Can Alley
Ring Toss





We couldn't have pulled it off without our family helping so much. From giving out tickets for the games, holding babies, cleaning up, washing dishes, you name it - they were beyond helpful.


Colin's sister Alison is AWESOME enough to do all the face painting. We set her up in the boys' playhouse. The kids LOVED it. She did such a great job, and helped me out with so much for the party that week, too. Thank goodness she was here - I couldn't have gotten it all done without her, especially since Colin was busy having his appendix removed : )

The kids had fun taking pictures, too.
Here are just a few of my favorites ...




After all the kiddos had a chance to play games and win plenty of tickets,
everyone got to have some dinner.
When I was searching for ideas months before, I saw a picture of a carnival food sign that I fell in love with. I knew immediately I'd ask Alison to make it for us, and she agreed.

I love how it turned out.
We will be having the same menu for the following carnival parties (for the siblings...) so we can use this sign over and over again.
Heck, I might hang it up for every party - regardless of what we are eating.

So, the warm pretzels weren't so warm. But no big deal.

We knew we wanted to have caramel apples, but didn't think the kids would be able to eat them whole. So, I just decided to cut slices and have caramel dip. Voila!
However, I really wanted to have some apples to put out for decoration -
and they were getting pretty warm and melty looking, so we put them in the fridge before the party. After the party, I found them still sitting in the fridge. whoops!
I sure did take them out the next day and take a picture of them anyway.



Fruit on a Stick.
Big Hit.
We knew we wanted to do this - but didn't want to use sharp wooden skewers.
Tried using lollipop sticks - got all soggy and fell apart.
I came across these cocktail stir sticks at Target one day - perfect.

My mom made fudge for us. Yum.
I was so excited, we stuck little flags in it.

I made sugar cookies. Ended up simpler than I originally thought -but, they worked out fine.



After everyone got a chance to eat, we sang happy birthday to the birthday boys.
A few days before the party, Heather and I took pictures of Nathan and Jackson against the photo booth backdrop. They boys had so much fun taking pictures and we captured some sweet moments. We hung them on yarn with mini clothespins around the cake table.

Here are just a few of my favorites.
These two boys crack me up.

So, cake table...
Goodness, this post is too long.

I made the cakes on Friday. There was way too much cake, of course.
But can there really ever be too much cake?
I used gumballs around the bottom, and cut out the flags and the 4 out of fondant.
Nathan's was the same, except he had a blue 4, and his cake was chocolate.

And since there wasn't enough cake, I made cupcakes too.
I think I might have a problem.
When we first started planning, I just really wanted to do a simple cupcake with a gumball on the top.

I used the scrapbook paper to make the pinwheels.


Look! Colin was at the party!
Ha.
I don't know why there aren't any pictures of him.
He was making popcorn, grilling hotdogs, and searching for matches : )


After cake, all the kids played some more games (no tickets this time) and we all just enjoyed ourselves and some cold beer.

As the kids left, they turned in their tickets to collect prizes. It didn't matter how many tickets you won, everyone got the same thing. But the kids still enjoyed "turning in" their tickets to pay for the prizes.

Popcorn containers came from the Dollar Spot at Target.

Got the candy jars at Hobby Lobby and made the labels for the lids.
I had seen cute favors in the Valentine section at Walmart, and they were just bright colors - not the typical red and pink. So, on the 15th of Februrary I went to Walmart and bought them all 50% off. So, prizes were taken care of.

It was so funny to watch how some kids just dumped all their tickets in the bucket, and others very meticulously took one ticket out at a time.


The best part of the whole party is that we collected $350 from all of the guests in place of toys for Jackson and Nathan. Of course, they got plenty of gifts from us and from our families. But we were able to shop for 3 different children/families with the donations, and what a wonderful gift that is.



And, like you haven't gotten enough, here's another 100 pictures or so I couldn't leave out.
I feel like when I put pictures on the blog, we will be able to remember this way. Like a scrapbook I guess. I hope the boys will go back and look through all the posts and enjoy the memories. Even if they don't, at least I can : )




At some point, the Dig 4 Gold table, turned right back into the regular-old sand table. Guess someone found the crate full of trucks and sand toys, and the kids went to town.



Cooper got his face painted - and picked a hot air balloon (of course)



I wish I would have gotten a family shot of us. And some pictures of a few other details that I missed. But, we had a blast. And we're already planning on giving Cooper a carnival party when he turns 4. So, in 19 months, you'll be seeing all of the same decorations again. All of the signs and paper chain, etc are in bins are the top of my closet.