Circus Party -6yr- Polaroid Picture Thank You Cards

For my son's 6th birthday, I threw him a Circus themed party.

The invitations were made with yellow card stock and a paper popcorn bag (red & white striped). I cut the popcorn bags and only kept the part that read "POPCORN" and then glued it to the stock paper which had the invitation details on it. The end result looked like a popcorn box stuffed with popcorn from the front and the back was just yellow. It read: Ladies & Gentlemen Children of All Ages…Isaiah's Circus Is Coming To Town!!! The date and time were included along with: Come Witness as Isaiah Attempts the "Death Defying Birthday Candle Blow Out" and then, of course, R.S.V.P. to the Ring Master, ME! (The invitation ideas were taken from an invitation site on the internet)

The decorations were red & yellow balloons (a whole lot of them) we had red & yellow table covers and the center pieces were some plastic hot dog trays filled with peanuts and they had balloons tied to them. We crumbled the shelled peanuts all over the tables as decoration. We rented a popcorn machine (it was very vintage looking with wheels) and had my niece and her friends walk around passing out the popcorn in bags (these bags were purchased at Sam's Club and we got a lot of use out of them), peanuts- which we pre-wrapped in clear platic goodie bags tied with red balloon ribbon and also foam clown noses for everyone (I purchased these from Oriental Trading).

The girls had trays which I made out of boxes I picked up from our local grocery store (the ones the canned vegetables sit on top of- they were free). I covered them in fabric with bright primary colors (some were polka dots others were striped) and hot glued some pom poms to a heavy ribbon that was glued to the boxes and went around their necks (just like the vendors use at the circuses). I made them hair scrunchies with the extra fabric to match their boxes. We served hot dogs and nachos. We made posters for the food and games. We hung a poster that said: Consession Stand. It had a box of popcorn, hotdogs, nachos and sodas on it.

For the games I set up my backyard like a carnival/ fairground. There was a poster on a stick (the kind they use to post election signs in yards) for each game/stand. We had Duck Pond- we used a giant toy bin and filled it with water and the ducks were bought from Oriental Trading. I wrote either a 1,2 or 3 on the bottoms to determine which bin they could choose a prize from. We had the Ring Of Fire- We covered a hoola-hoop with gold garland and the kids used a stuffed tiger to throw through the hoop to win a prize. The prize for this game was a balloon hat that my son & I made. I found the step-by-step instructions on the internet. We made them that morning and put them in a large trash bag for easy picking for the kids.

We had Hoop It Up- a basketball game. We already had the stand (it was like the ones you see at Chuck-E-Cheese's- only not electronic- you could use a regular basket ball hoop or the small ones you hang on your kids' bedroom door).

Then we had a cake walk (just like musical chairs) We rented the chairs for $1.00 each at a local Uhaul store. We set them up in a huge circle (30 kids played). We numbered the chairs with construction paper that we printed the cool looking numbers on from the computer. We had huge speakers hooked up to a boom box so the music was awesome and added real excitement to the party. The winner of this game won a real cake- I baked it the night before- my special Jello Pudding stuffed cake! We had so many prizes because I ordered them from Oriental Trading. The kids all got several prizes each. There were stickers, pens, pencils, stuffed animals, bracelets, etc. I hired my brother's friend to come and do face painting.

He did an excellent job- the faces were FULLY painted. We made a little stage because my son wanted to play karoeke in teams but it didn't quite work out that way- they just put on a little show altogether. We used a piece of plywood and set it on top of cylinder blocks. My mom and I draped some red & white striped fabric all around the plywood like a skirt. We stapled it with a gun- really fast & easy. We had a pinata and the kids used the popcron bags (ONCE AGAIN) to put their candy in.

The thank you gift was a Polaroid picture of the kids (individually or with whoever they wanted) with the clown nose and balloon hat on. I made a life-size poster cut out of a clown holding her hand out and tied real balloons to her. The kids took their picture with her. We put the pictures in a frame that we made out of craft popsicle sticks. We made them in a triangle and wrote on them: Thanx For Clowning Around At Isaiah's Circus. We glued animal shaped fun foam to them (purchased at Oriental Trading).

This party was a huge success! The best advice I can give anyone throwing a party like this is plan ahead and make the decorations and party favors ahead of time so you're not stressed out come party day. I was up until 4am the night before finishing up the posters! All worth it, though- I love being a MOM!