Carnival Birthday Party

For Cole's 4th and Kiley's 1st birthday we threw a Carnival Birthday party in the backyard. It was awesome. We played carnival games and ate ice cream cone cupcakes. You can see all the details from the party by clicking here - Carnival Birthday Party.

Carnival Birthday Party - Pinata

Our last activity before going inside for some tasty cupcakes was to break open the pinata. Last yet I made the Lego pinata that we used, but this year I just purchased one. We always hang our pinata from the monkey bars on our swing set. I really like this because I make the kids stand outside the mulch area so that no one gets hit with a bat.

Carnival Birthday Party - Loot Bags

When the kids started to arrive for the Carnival Birthday Party I had a table set up where the kids could decorate their loot bags. I had markers and stickers for them as well as sticker letters for them to put their names on the bags. They used these bags to collect their prizes from the game booths in the back yard. Then these were the bags they took home with them. I loved having the kids collect their prizes from games instead of just handing them a regular loot bag.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Treasure Hunt

This was a messy game, but super fun for the Carnival Birthday Party. I took Lego bags and stuffed them inside toilet paper rolls. I wrapped them up and we buried them in our sandbox. The kids has so much fun digging for their buried treasure. I'm going to feature this over on my TP Craft site in the near future, but I thought I'd share it with you guys first.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Fishing

This booth was the kids' favorite at the Carnival Birthday Party. Cole and my husband painted a fish scene on some large banner paper that we had. We wrapped it around the frame of a soccer net. The pole was an actual Nemo fishing pole, the hook was replaced by a binder clip. My mom ran this booth for us and the kids LOVED casting the pole over the fishing booth to see what they had won.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Lollypop Pull

This may have been the easiest game I made for the Carnival Birthday Party. I bought a styrofoam ring and wrapped it with tulle that was left over from when I made Kiley a tutu. I had these jelly bean popsicle/lollypop things that I got on clearance at Target after Easter last year. I marked 3 of them with an X, those were the winners who got an extra prize. Everyone got to keep the lollypop.

Carnival Birthday Party - Photo Booth

I had high hope for a photo booth set up at the Carnival Birthday Party. We raided Cole's dress up box and came up with a few great props. I put them all in a bucket and used a staple gun to attach an old curtain to the fence. I put our old point and shoot camera out for people to take pictures but I ended up taking all the pictures with good camera. I love the way they turned out and I included a set of wallet pictures with the thank you notes we sent out.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Basketball Throw

This was an easy game for the Carnival Birthday Party. We used Cole's basketball hoop and some bean bags. I choose to use the bean bags because I knew that balls would be bouncing all over the yard.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Ring Toss

Game #2 at our Carnival Birthday Party was the Ring Toss. This game was super easy to make. I started with 6 empty Sprite bottles. I choose Sprite because the bottles are clear. I added water colored with food coloring to them. We used pool rings to throw over the tops of the bottles. Since we played all our games out in the backyard I covered a folding table with a table cloth and just laid it on the ground. This way the bottles didn't fall over.

Carnival Birthday Party Games - Duck Pond

One of the games we played at the Carnival Birthday Party was a Duck Pond. For each game I had a bucket with the prizes and directions on how to play the game. This made it very easy for any extra adult to help the kids play. It also allowed me to have everything set up and ready to go a few days before the actual party. For the Duck Pond I inflated a small kiddie pool and filled it with plastic ducks. The ducks all had a B or a P on the bottom. The B ones got bubbles as a prize and the P ducks got playdoh. I also let the kids keep the ducks.

Carnival Birthday Party Invitations

For our Carnival Birthday Party I created an invitation that looked like a string of tickets. I did this in photoshop and used some pictures of the kids sitting in a ball pit. The invitations were mailed in animal cracker boxes with a clown nose and some tickets. They turned out absolutely adorable and everyone loved getting the box of animal crackers in the mail.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcake Holder...

So I showed you my delicious Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes here. Well, I was stuck with how to display and serve them for the party. I ended up purchasing 2 step stools in the Target dollar spot. My husband drilled large holes in the stools and they were the perfect size to set the cones in. It was a great inexpensive way to keep my tasty creations from tipping over.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes...

I made these for our Carnival Birthday Party (pics coming soon). They were super easy and a huge hit! I started by covering a loaf pan with foil. Poke holes in foil and slip the cones down in the pan. Fill the cones about 1/2 way full with cupcake batter. I used regular from the box cake mix but made my icing from scratch using this recipe. To make the chocolate butter cream I just added cocoa powder the the existing recipe. I used a star tip to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes and the "cherries" are actually cherry sour candies that I found at Super Target.