Carnival birthdayparty

Normally I ask the kids what they would like for their birthdays but this year I already had an idea; a carnival.

First of all I had already decided that having two birthdays with two different themes was out of the question when I had a little baby. Second; how cool would a carnival birthday be?

It was a blast - not just having it (for the kids) - but planning for it was also so much fun.

The overall plan was to have different booths with activities and not really a set time for anything - they could eat when they wanted to or play or try the booths. It worked out perfectly - with almost 20 kids they may not be hungry at the same time or want to do the same thing at the same time. In order for us to have enough adults for the activities we did have some helpers and a plan. Not all the activities was open for business at the same time nor was the food out for the entire time.

We rented a bouncy castle, a popcorn machine and a sluch-ice machine - got a great deal! Worth every penny!

Food
Danish kids don't know corn dogs and other american style carnival food. So instead we had pizza and nuggets. All the food I either made or bought. I found some paperplates and cut and stapled them so they became little bowls and used plastic shot glasses for dipping sauce.

They also had popcorn, slush-ice, watermelon, candy apples, cotton candy and cake (chocolatecake and donuts).

Decorations
I made laminated signs for the booths - with red stripes and a readable font. The invitation was made the same way.

I also made bunting flags to hang everywhere.

Activities
There was the following booths:
Fishing
Bopping for apples
Can toss
Wheel of fortune
Bite the bun
Cake toss
Photo

Apart from that there was also a bouncy castle, the food stand and the prize stand.

They could earn tickets at each booth and they could trade those tickets for prizes. I wanted to make sure that I had enough prizes and that they didn't eat tons of sugar, so each child got a little ticket-folder with a string on it so they could exchange tickets for activities and slush-ice and cake etc.

They kids said it was the best birthday party ever! And it was ... I will post more pictures later ..