Carnival Party 6yr - Corn Dogs

Well, I did a carnival party for my 6 year old. 

I got a refrigerator box, and painted it with blue and white stripes, (I bought the OOPS paint from a local home depot… for $1.00 a can) after it was painted, I cut the front out and wrote tickets on the box.  And painted balloons all over the box.  I then bought a roll of tickets to pass out to each child as they arrived, and had to come to the ticket booth. I had my mom sit inside of the ticket booth and hand out tickets to each child, for the simple fact that it was a carnival, and well. Each game costs tickets to play, of course.

We also had special tickets, that I printed on the computer.  These special tickets were for the popcorn stand (we borrowed a huge red and white old fashion popcorn maker) and we bought the red and white popcorn boxes at a local store, so they had genuine popcorn boxes and there was also a special ticket for cotton candy.  Although, I didn't rent a cotton candy machine.  TOO EXPENSIVE, so I bought the containers of cotton candy sold at a local store and then bought clear goodie bags, and seperated that cotton candy into the goodie bags and twist tied them shut.  That way each child had their own special bag of cotton candy.  And again, the kids had to use their special tickets (each was alloted one for each special treat) to get the cotton candy and popcorn. We of course had corn dogs as well to eat.  Easy, no plates to worry about.

We had rainbowed colored flags hung around.  And lots of regular colored baloons.  Very simple! Oh, I also bought plywood, and I can draw and paint, so I made those cutouts characters, you know where I drew the body and left the head out, so the kids could put their heads in the empty spaces.  I drew 2 of these.  I drew a muscle man and lady in a bikini bathing suit, and left the heads empty at the top of the necks, so the kids looked like a muscle man and bikini lady.  I also drew a lion tamer bending over to put his head into the lions mouth.well, the kids would put their head into the lions mouth which I cut out, and it looked like THEY (the kids) were the lion tamer.  These went over really well, and then I printed the photos and put them in the Thank you cards that I sent home to everyone later on! I had several games for the kids to play.  Didn't buy any premade games.  Made them all myself of of items. 

The games included the following:  A duck pond, took a kiddy pool from the dollar store, and filled it with plastic ducks and #'s written on the bottom.  Each # obviously represented a prize.  Another game, was the bottle ring toss… I made this by collecting water bottles and hot glued about 50 of them to a piece of plywood I painted.  And bought plastic rings for the old fashion bottle ring toss.  Another game I made was the old fasihon bozo game.  Went to the dollar store, bought sand buckets, and took a piece of plywood, cut it into a long thin strip,  painted it, and then hot glued the sand buckets to the plywood, and then bought ping pong balls for them to toss into it.  I also made my own old fashion knock the tin cans down, like the milk can game.  I took old soda cans.  Filled them with sand, and then hot glued the tops shut.  Then took an old box, cut the side out, and then took a shoe box, to make the table INSIDE of the box with the side cut out, for the table for the cans to sit on, set the cans up inside, and they had to throw a wiffle ball to try and knock the cans down.  This was HARDER than it looked, just like it is at the real carnivals! 

Another game was toss across. (obviously I didn't make this)  Another was: Throw a football thru the hoola hoop which I hung up with one of those backyard plant holders you know, the metal ones that you hang a potted plant on shepards hooks I think they are called.  I hung the hoola hoop from that, and had the kids threw a nerf football (dollar store).  I also bought a velcro board and had them throw velcro balls at it.  Oh, and I had a monster basketball hoop that I found at a local store, and a monster basketball that they played with as well.  Oh, another thing they could do with their tickets was guess how many jelly beans were in the jar winner won a special prize.  Another station was temporary tattoos. Where another relative sat and did tattoos, which also cost tickets.  Oh, and we all had those carny hats on, you know the white plastic ones it was hilarious! 

AND THEN  My husband and I both dressed up as clowns.  He bought an inflatable clown suit from ebay for 9.99, which was hilarious!!!  I bought old clothes from the local goodwill and painted them with acrylic paint and bought a wig and was good to go!  I downloaded lots of Carnival music and had that playing in the background too.  Of course all of the games had prizes to go with them. From candy, to bracelets, to small stuffed animals.   As for the cake, we went with cupcakes, and I bought little plastic clown heads to stick in the top, easy easy easy  it all worked out wonderful! Oh, and no goody bags per say I bought bakers bags you get 13 colorful bags for cheap at Micheals, and the kids used these for their prizes at each game, and for the candy, cotton candy, etc. So now I've done Wizard of Oz, and now the carnival, and next, my daughter wants a LUAU and then a Horse Party.