For my daughter Kaylis 5th birthday we had a backyard carnival. For the invitations I made popcorn bags. I took a plain piece of paper and colored on some red stripes. I then made copies of these. I cut them in half and then folded the halves. I glued three edges to form a bag. I then cut the top with a decrotive scrapbook scissors. I cut pieces to look like popcorn out of yellow paper and glued them to stick out of the bag. I then cut pieces of scrapbook paper to look like tickets and wrote admit 1 to Kaylis carnival. On the back of the ticket I wrote the needed information. I then put 5 tickets(I purchased a roll at a local party store) in each invite to start them out. Kaylis dad made a ticket booth out of scrap wood, and painted on tickets 1 cent. He also made a D.J/karaokee booth complete with music karaokee machine and the t.v. screen where kids could sing. Games were displayed around the yard and friends and I made signs for each game. I then glued as many tickets that game would be to each sign makin it easier for the little kids to know how many tickets the game was. We had face painting where they could also recieve a princess hat. My neighbor made a golf game for Kayli to use for the party. It was a long narrow platform complete with astroterf and the cup hole. We had glued two different colored cups onto a piece of wood and filled them with water this was the goldfish toss where they had the opportunity to win a real goldfish.(Kids loved this) Also had a pick a duck game only I used rubber fish and called it splash splish catch that fish. Player had to pick a fish and recieved a prize that cooresponded to the shape on the bottom. Older kids were blindfolded. We then had a ring toss where we took bottles and liquid nailed them to a board, I then used my daughters hard plastic bracelets as the rings. I made a penny slide by coloring dots on the white side of wrapping paper. I made a lollipop tree by using a styrofoam cone tissure paper and decopauge I decorated the cone and then stuck the lollipops in. I used soda bottles for a bowling game and spray painted on the grass for the alley. We had a tresure hunt game by using colored sand and rocks and the kids had to try and shovel out a rock in 2 trys. We have a small pond in the back yard where we made fish out of craft foam and glued a washer to the inside. We then made the fishing pole out of a dowel and tied string to the end with a magnet. The kids could fish in the pond. I also had a guessing jar. The kids also had a booth where they could make colored sand jars to take home. For two tickets you could take the hay ride we had an ATV with a trailor on the back filled with hay. We Have a open field in the back where Kaylis dad drove everyone around. For food I rented a cotton candy machine(everyone loved) and had hotdogs, juice, soda individual bags of chips, nachos everthing had to be bought with tickets. When the kids arrived I sent them on a penny scramble. We sprinkeled pennys all over the patio and and throughout different spots in the yard. The kids had to hunt for pennys so they could go buy there tickets. I kept sprinkling through out the day so kids could keep buying tickets. Limit of five at a time. We had a prize table set up so when they would play the game if they won they would be given a different colord ticket to turn in for a prize if they didn't win they could go pick a piece of candy. I gave each kid a popcorn box so they could carry around for there prizes. For cake we made cake inside of icecream cones where we sprayed on whip cream to look like a icecream on the cone and the kids got to decorate with sprinkles. (lots of fun and much easier to serve then cake that doesn't get eaten.) We opened gifts and had a pinata. This was a fun day make sure you have lots of helpers and plenty of time.. Have a great carnival we did!!!