A Carnival Birthday Party

In NJ the weather is cold and snowy, so I thought I'd warm things up a bit by sharing the details of my daughters 8th birthday party last summer!

The Theme: 

A Carnival Birthday Party! 

Planning a Birthday CARNIVAL is possibly one of the most exciting party themes I've worked with.

If you're a crafty DIY kind of person, this theme will be a dream come true! 

If you're not, don't worry, you can pretty much find every carnival related thing imaginable for sale or rent online. 

Either way, your CARNIVAL PARTY will be the talk of the town, and the kids (and parents) will have a BLAST!

 YOU'RE INVITED TO KAYLA'S BIRTHDAY CARNIVAL...

 My first project was the invitations.

When I bought the invitations they looked like this.. 

Cute - but a little to young for my big 8 year old! 

So after working some magic with my exact-o knife this is 

what I came up with...

I used these invitations as my starting point and designed the rest of the 

party details and decorations to match.

I printed up matching tags for the party favors -

 Our older guests took home T-Shirts printed up to read  

"I had a Blast at Kayla's Birthday Carnival"  

and the younger guests were given bubbles and sand toys.

GAMES

What fun is a carnival without games?!

With a little help from the Birthday Girl and Oriental Trading, 

I was able to recreate some of the most popular carnival games..

 

 Bean Bag Toss

Balloon Darts 

(Supervision required - Thanks Tara!)

To make this we used large cork board, thumb tacks, small balloons and darts for playing

(I was smart enough to recruit Alison and Matt for balloon blowing duty!)

Duck Pond

I wanted to make sure there was a game for everyone and 

this was a hit with the younger guests

 

 

Slip and Slide

We set up two of these in the front yard and the kids loved racing down them

 The Main Attraction

The Dunk Tank

We rented this from a local party supply and this was a huge hit with everyone!

Prize Table

After playing each game, win or lose, the kids were given tickets to trade in for prizes

Some Other Attractions

Balloon Animals

Silly Photo Board

The Food

We wanted to stick with classic carnival food so I served

Popcorn chicken

French fries

Sliders

Mini corn dogs 

We put all the food in these cute popcorn boxes that I found at the party store. 

I cut the boxes in half for smaller portions and printed up the "popcorn" stickers.



And of course Cotton Candy 

And last but not least THE CAKE (always my favorite part!)

A perfect end to the perfect party!

-Dana

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