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 ..

7 year birthday

Alexander

Alexander requested a soccer themed birthday party. So I went online a bought a bunch of FC Barcelona plates, cups and table runners. I also bought balloons in red, blue and red.

I made some labels for waterbottles.

For the cake I made a soccer field with spectators - it was a chocolate cake with green frosting.

For activities Alexander had many ideas. We ended up with a treasurehunt where they had to perform certain tasks along the way:

Jumping on trampoline

Walking on a "thin line"

Tug of war

Throwing balls in basket

And of course a soccer game.

Emmeline

Emmeline wanted a Barbie party. Barbie decorations and balloons were bought and I also made labels for her water bottles

She wanted cupcakes so I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes:

She does not have the same imagination as Alexander so her activites was a bit the same

But there were also time for more girly activities

Stop dance

Decorate a cupcake. I had made extra cupcakes and three or four different shades of frosting and tons of sprinkles in different shapes and sizes. The girls loved it and they got to take their cupcake home.

Cakes

A few years ago I started making cakes for the kids birthdays. I have always liked baking but to make the cake look like something other than a cake is so cool.

The twins 4th birthday

After attending a course in how to decorate your cake it was decided for the kids birthday I would make a train for Alexander and a princess castle for Emmeline. I have learned sooo much from that decision.

Alexanders train cake. It was a chocolate cake covered with brown fondant. The wheels were Oreos, the coal was colored sugar and the logs were candy.

Emmelines cake. The cake was a traditional danish birthdaycake - a layed cake. The towers were toiletpaperrolls covered in plastic and fondant. The top of the towers were papercones covered in plastic and fondant and rolled in colored sugar. 

1. PLAN - Instead of making it up as you go along plan everything that will be on the cake. It takes time to come up with ideas and to making them happen so I start several months in advance

2. Start early - making two cakes with that much decoration takes a lot of time. Most of the decoration can easily be done in advance. Its all the little details that take time.

For the twins 5th birthday I thought I was smarter. I made a Rapunzel house and a football cake. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time so I bought more of the decoration instead of making it.

Emmelines Rapunzel cake: The cake was a plain white cake covered in fondant. It took forever to make the roof and I was soooooo grateful that I had bought the doll in advance - otherwise I wouldn't have made all the details on the house. 

Alexanders soccercake. A chocolate cake covered in fondant. I thougth I had bought a soccer decoration set but when I got home it was a hockey set. The goals I could use and I had a soccerball to use too.

3. When building a cake it needs support. I know duh ... I learned that the cake could only be leveled if the cake was even. It was supposed to be a tower but I couldn't figure out how to make the tower strong enough to hold the heavy cake.

Then I learned about rice crispy treats ... The next year I was a bit more ambitious again. A space cake for Alexander and a castle (again) for Emmeline:

Alexanders spacerocket. The cake was a white cake and a chocolate cake with toblerone filling and raspberry filling. Covered in fondant. The wings and top and the bottom was rice crispy treats.  

Emmelines castle cake. The towers was rice crispy treats covered in fondant. The walkway was sugar and the cake was a white layered cake with toblerone filling and strawberry filling.

4. Even rice crispy treats take time but they can be made a week in advance. All I had to do on the day of the party was to assemble the cakes. 

5. Heavy items need support. I still haven't figured out how to support the wings of the space rocket.

Making my husbands 40th birthday cake was in comparison much easier and less time consuming and it was nice to make a pretty cake instead of all the kiddy cakes.

Jans cake: A layered white cake with chocolate filling and strawberry filling. The little cake on top was the same. All of it covered in fondant. Little balls of plastic is holding up inside the bow.

This year Emmeline has requested cupcakes and a barbie theme. Alexander has requested another soccercake. Stay tuned :)