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.

Mini projects

I went on maternity leave a month before my baby was due ... and she decided to take her sweet time arriving so I spent many hours on the couch. These are some of my projects.

I knit two hats (with twins I can never just make one).

I also crochet some Christmas egg cozys.

And one Santa coaster ... when I realized how many I had to make I gave up after just one.