Carnival/Circus Extravaganza For my daughters 7th birthday I was stuck on what to do. I am known for going all out, way out, for my kids birthday parties. Each year it gets harder to top myself. Finally I came up with the Carnival idea. INVITATION: I got red and white striped popcorn boxes with a scalloped edge(the kind you usually see at the circus.)Then on the computer I made up red and white striped paper.(I wanted it to match the stripe on the box)On the paper I printed out all the info. Then I cut it out to the shape of one of the sides of the box and glued it on. Next I filled the box with popcorn but half way through I snuck in a little plastic toy. Like Cracker Jacks. I bought clear cellophane bags and put them in. We hand delivered them to her friends. Most of the kids go to her school. We invited the whole class because when you give out invitations like that everyone finds out. No hurt feeling wanted. Thirty four kids invited, thirty four kids came. THE PARTY: The yard was decorated with lots of helium balloons and flag banners(like the ones at used car lots) hanging from everything imaginable. I bought ten different carnival type games from a catalogue called Oriental Trading Company. Their web site address is www.orientaltrading.com They carry ALL kinds of party supplies and goodies. Everything small is sold by the dozen at well below retail. The games are sold individually. Anyways, I set up ten different booths with the carnival games. For the attendants(our friends)I made red and white striped aprons to wear. They stood at each booth and reset the games and handed out the prizes. I had two different type of prizes. One for the winners and a smaller consolation prize for the kids who lost. Everyone got a prize win or lose. I bought six hundred prizes in all(you can buy bags of 100 through oriental trading company for very inexpensive) and every last one was gone by the end of the party. I had bags in carnival colors standing buy for them to put their goodies in. Everyone went home with a big bag full. I rented a churro, a popcorn, a hotdog, and a pretzel cart. Like you see at the carnival. Yet more attendants(friends) where there to help the kids with the food. I also rented a bouncer/slide in the shape of a circus train. Mid way through I had a clown arrive. She did juggling and face painting and was a funny ventriloquist. A couple of children were so convinced that they were at a real carnival that they asked me how much the food was. When I told them everything was free they could hardly contain themselves. I received soooo many compliments and people telling me they hope they will be invited to every party I ever have. The entire preparation took about 3 months. I know it all sounds outrageous but my kids birthdays are a big deal to me. I want them to remember each and every one. All the hard work pays off as the children arrive and their faces are beaming with excitement and joy as they can hardly believe their eyes. They go to school and for the next week that's all they can talk about. Most of these ideas can be scaled down and done rather inexpensively. Examples, make your our carnival games instead of buying them. Have dad or a friend dress up as the clown instead of renting. Just have fun with it!