Vintage Carnival Party!

The parties are finally behind us around here. Jake’s Spy Training Party was first, followed by Greg’s big Super Bowl Party the next weekend, and here we have Tyler’s Carnival Party rounding out the trifecta of party weekends. Phew! I love planning and throwing parties, but three in a row is just too many for even me. However, I didn’t want Tyler’s party to be a big letdown after the other two great parties, so I rallied my energy (and my relatives’ help!) and threw one last shindig.

When the boys are only interested in legos, and we’ve had a lego party before, it’s tough trying to come up with party ideas they like. Pinterest to the rescue! Tyler loved the carnival idea right from the start. I wanted to give it that old fashioned feel, so I designed a collage to use on all of the game posters.

And with some of the full sheet label paper leftover from previous parties, I used the collage on labels for the drinks. The blue and green Jones sodas were my party splurge…they’re more than a dollar each!

We had five carnival “games” run by five different suckers, I mean, relatives who love Tyler. My mom ran the dart throwing balloon pop, because she has the teaching background, which kept anyone from ending up with a dart in the head.

Uncle Don ran the beanbag basket toss, and came up with all kinds of creative challenges for the kids to do, like throwing the beanbags over their shoulders backwards! My dad ran the knock em down booth with towers of cans and tennis balls.

Good ole Uncle Rob had the hardest job, running an obstacle course up on the third floor. I sent him up there with no instruction, and there he stayed, creating new courses in isolation up there for the entire party!

Aunt Krissy supervised my last minute addition…balloon faces. The angry birds (downloadables here) turned out to be the biggest hit!

At each station, the kids earned tickets which they could spend on prizes. I bought a few lots of small prizes from Oriental Trading Co., along with the lollipops to decorate the kitchen island. The bigger prizes were a combination of Target dollar spot items and Goodwill finds. I found a whole box of McDonald’s happy meal prizes that were the cutest miniature beanie babies! Can’t beat 28 beanie babies for $14! Then I added some stuffed animals we’ve won at the fair over the years…I’ve been saving them for future foster kids or as present toppers for birthdays, but I thought they’d make a fun addition to the prize table.

When we had to move the party from outside at the park to inside the house, I picked up two rolls of crepe paper to make the dining room reminiscent of a circus tent.

Of course, the birthday boy had a blast. Surrounded by as many people as humanly possible, our six year old extrovert had the time of his life.

As I said the other day, the rainbow layer cake was a hit, even if we didn’t even dip into the cupcakes. I sent those home with a neighbor mom when I found out it was her birthday!

Happy Birthday to my littlest not-so-little boy!