Carnival Party 7yr - Canopy Tents

For my daughter's 7th b-day we did a Carnival Party. This is her first co-ed party so we had to come up with a theme that wasn't too girly. Everyone loved it and some kids said it was the Best Party Ever!  This was suppose to be a 3hr party but we didn't do all the things we had planned.

INVITATIONS: 2pc Popcorn Invitations where the card depicting popping popcorn with all the party info slid out of the paper sleeve/cover of the popcorn container. On the front paper sleeve/cover it said POP ON OVER FOR A PARTY.  The wording inside the invitation read Hurry! Hurry! Come one activities & more! Cotton candy popcorn & treats galore! You're surely not going to miss the fun! There are even prizes to be won!"  Flip side of this had all the pertinent party info.  Another idea I had was just to get regular striped paper popcorn bags and write the party info on the back and mail it out.

DECORATIONS: We did it outdoors in our large backyard. I bought 4ft tiki torches and planted them in the ground perpendicular to our fence and then tied multicolored pendant banners (or you can use streamers) from the fence to the tiki torches so it looked like little booths were sectioned off for each game we were going to play. Tiki torches were $1 each at the Dollar Store pendant streamers from Oriental Trading Co. (OTC).  Bubble machine  and lawn sign at the entrance gate. Canopy tent set up. 

The prize redeemption table decorated in blue plastic tablecloth red white blue balloon holders with stars made it look festive. Didn't actually buy balloons because I thought the kids were too old now for balloons.  Lay down a tarp underneath the canopy so the kids could sit down to eat their cake & ice cream. Didn't want to spend the money on renting little chairs or a little table.  Got some BIG TOP & Animal Cracker empty cardboard boxes from the Dollar Store for free to put the various prizes in. Made signs stating prizes in each box were either 12351015 tickets.  Bought lots of small prizes from OTC (balls rings whirly wings paddle ball bracelets cars gum cracker jack boxes mini gumball machines (big hit this one) spinners keychains + a whole lot of other things I can't remember now & bigger prizes included clown hats clown ties silly sunglasses stuffed animals circus sea monkey type of grow things.

FOOD: popcorn in striped popcorn paper bags mini corn dogs on large fork toothpicks (Target box of 40 for $2.00) chocolate cupcake cake in shape of a flower (no mess in having to cut it up as these were individual cupcakes arranged together to look like a flower with pink icing) Walmart cupcake cake $15.00 or any grocery store really will do this up for you. Would have had cotton candy and snow cones but just too messy and didn't want the kids filled up before they even had cake. Juice/Water. Had ice cream with their chocolate cupcake and had sprinkles and chocolate chips so the kids can decorate their ice cream as well. 

GOODIE BAGS: Their bags were so full from Small toys from the tickets they won playing games when they redeemed them for these prizes and from the pinata toys and candy. The main giveaway goodie bag was a plastic popcorn container (Dollar Store or can be found at Target for $1) I had wrapped in clear wrap and filled this with a package of unpopped popcorn a small paddle ball toy individual sized bag of cotton candy (Dollar Store/Grocery store) and individual size bag of animal crackers (box of 12 at the grocery store).

GAMES ACTIVITIES:  Most are home-made type carnival games. Bought a roll of 2000 tix from OTC. Hired a neighbourhood teen to help out with the games directing the kids and handing out the tickets for each game.    

1. When the kids arrived had them decorate their own bag (primary colored gift bags 8x11 Walmart 8 for $3.50)   

2. GUESS THE NUMBER OF GUMBALLS - Had filled a plastic bear like container with gumballs and the kids had to write on a slip of paper their guess of how many gumballs were in the container. Closest guess got the whole container  

3.  TOOTSIE LOLLIPOP PULL - bought a foam ball and propped it up on a stick and box.  Inserted 2 bags of lollipop all over the ball colored 2 dozen ends of the lollipops so that when the kids pulled one with a colored end they got 5 tickets. They also got to keep whatever lollipop they pulled out. They could try until they got one with a colored end   

4. LION & HIPPO STANDEE CUTOUT PHOTO BOOTH - had bought the Cranium Carnival ($40 at Target) game that had a fabric cutout of lion and hippo so when the kids stood behind the cutout their faces would be in the open lion or hippo's mouth. Took pics of each child with my daughter in the photo booth thing. Glued a pic of each child to a Carnival Tent Photo Card (OTC) and wrote a thank you note on the back of this card.  Mailed the thanx card & pic after we opened the presents  

5. TOSS THE BALL THRU CUTOUT HOLES - in the Cranium Carnival game had another fabric cutout with holes in amounts of 100200300.  Kids threw balls at the holes and if it went thru they got 5 tickets  

6.  BASKETBALL THROW - ordered the inflatable Happy Birthday Basketball throw game (OTC) if kids made the throw thru the net they got tickets and even if they didn't they still got 1 or 2 tickets  

7. RING TOSS - put a stake in the ground and kids had to throw rings over the stake gave tickets according to how many rings they got  

8.  KNOCK DOWN THE CANS - got tin cans and ball and kids tried to knock them all down  

9.  WATER SQUIRT GUN PING PONG KNOCK OFF - popular game propped ping pong balls ontop of filled water bottles had the kids try to knock the balls off from a distance with their water squirt gun   

10. PICK A LUCKY DUCK - small ring pool from Walmart and floated weighted ducks (bought these from OTC) numbered ducks underneath kids picked a duck and got the corresponding number of tix   

11.  SODA POP RING TOSS - love this game bought a flat of 12 water bottles bought cane rings (ebay $5) kids tossed the rings and tried to loop the top of the bottles.  If a ring landed on a bottle top with a sticker on it they got 10 tix    

12. PENNY PITCH - saved 2 Ferror Roche containers from xmas and put stickers on some of the rounded out bottoms and if a child threw the penny into one of the holes with a sticker on it they got 5 tix.  This could also be easily made with a few egg cartons.    

13.  TIC TAC TOE - had the game and kids threw bean bags to make tic tac toe     

14.  SKEEBALL  with Wiffle Balls - Large cardboard (Science Fair Presentation cardboard left over) has 3 panels with 2 folded cut holes a little larger than the wiffle ball in the center cardboard mark with 100200300 for each hole one panel you prop up and the opposite side panel you lay flat so the balls can be bowled up the cardboard and into the holes.   

15. BALL ROLL OVER HOLES  -  Using the cardboard underneath a flat of Coke or water bottles cut out 9 holes a little smaller than the Wiffle balls (you can buy these at Walmart they are the plastic ones that kid use when first learning to play baseball with a plastic bat). Get 6 of these cardboard.  Mark a few of the holes as big tix winners. The game is to roll the ball so it lands on the big ticket holes.   

16.  DART THROW - thought about the balloon dark throwing game but it was just too dangerous so we had velcro bullseye and darks  

17. BOWLING - bowling pins and ball got tix according to how many they knocked down   

After all the Carnival type games I had the kids count their tix and go to the Prize Redeemption table where they "spent" their tickets picking out their prizes.   After that we did the PINATA. Had a flower pinata to match the cake and it was a leftover from last year's party.

After this it was time for the MAGIC SHOW. Had hired a local magician to come. Kids really LOVED the funny magic show. Magician used each kid volunteer in his act.  Perfect for this age group.  Afterwards the magician twisted balloon animals for each child (another thing for them to take home) 

Then we had cake sang happy birthday took group pictures

While we waited for the parents to come and pick up the kids we played some group relay games like SACK RACE (bought the sacks from OTC) hop to the finish line in sacks HULA HOOP RACE (like the three legged race but two kids in a hula hoop) trying to run to the finish line JUNK RACE - relay race where each child had to run and pick up one of the 5 items and return and tag the next member of their team  BALL WADDLE RACE - each team member had to run with a ball between their knees if the ball dropped they had to start over again  EGG & SPOON RACE - wooden spoon and we had wooden musical egg shakers (you could use real hardboiled eggs too).  That's it. It was fun for all and a couple of the kids told my daughter that it was by far the best party they had ever been to. Now that's a ringing endorsement from 7 yr olds."