I just had my 5 year olds carnival birthday. It was the best party I have ever thrown. I started the kids off at a table where they could decorate their own goodie bags. I had stickers, markers, crayons, and color pencils for the kids to decorate their plain solid color paper bags. We then went outside to the sand art table. Then the festivities began.  I gave all the kids their tickets and explained to them and their parents that they could play the games as many times as they wanted but they only got a prize if they handed in a ticket. We had a ring toss game that we made out of 2 liter bottles and used plastic bracelets as the rings. Everyone loved the throw the wet sponges at Uncle Joeys' head game. He stood behind a piece of ply wood and got wacked by the kids.  (Some of the adults even got in on this game.)  For the bean bag toss my husband made 5 different size holes in a 2x2 piece of ply wood and made legs for it to stand up.  I had a duck pond game.  The fishing game that my husband got wooden dowels, fancy colored string, and clothes pins to make the fishing poles.  My 13 y.o. brother loved manning this game, attaching the prizes to the clothes pins while throwing in a sock every now and then.  One of my friends came with some straw that he hid prizes in for a game. (It was kind of like an Easter egg hunt with the kids scurrying around.) We had empty cans that the kids had knock down with a bean bag for another game.  The lollipop game was just a styraphone cone with lollipops stuck into it. Half of the lollipops were colored on the one end. When the kids found a colored one they got a prize and they kept the loser lollipops.  I drew my own clown on a 11x13 piece of poster board.  My daughter got to color it in. That was the pin the nose on the clown game except we used red circle stickers. Then we had a pull string piñata.  I also had a clown there. She made the balloons. I was able to get an air tank af helium so all the kids went home with a balloon. The clown that I got was in shock of all the stuff that we had.  She asked me why I even had her there.  It is a party that requires a lot of planing. Our house looked like a recycling center for months. You also need a lot of helpers for all of the games. I thank my family for that.  I don't know if I will ever be able to top that party and I really feel bad for the people that couldn't make it.  We had soft pretzels, popcorn in popcorn bags, Kool-Aid, pink lemonade, rice krispie treats and rice krispie lollipop balls (in the middle of hardening wrap a fist full around a long lollipop stick), and sugar cookie lollipops.  We made ice cream cone cup cakes and bought a store cake.  I also made an activity book with my daughters picture on the front and having a birthday maze and other coloring book activities inside.