We had a carnival themed party for our 6 year old son.
We sent out computer generated invitations with clowns and colorful balloons on them. I purchased bright colored table clothes, plates, cups, plastic ware, and napkins. Ordered a lot of bright colored balloons also streamers and clown decorations. When the children arrived we gave each on a gift bag with handles to hold all of there tickets. The games included ring toss: 5 tickets per ring with 6 tries (octopus shaped with fish for the rings by little tikes it floats in a kiddy pool), Bowling 5 tickets per knocked down pin 2 tries(purchased at Wal-Mart), Pick a Duck: I numbered the ducks on the bottom 5, 10, 15, & 20 you then win that # of tickets (I purchased 2 dozen ducks from oriental trading), Bucket Toss: each bucket had a label on it 5, 10, 15, 20 you win the # of tickets the ball go in, keeping trying until the child gets one in (4 Sand Pails & 4 plastic balls also purchased at Wal-Mart), Pick a lollipop (a Styrofoam ball with lollipops stuck in it, color the bottom of the lollipop stick with 3 different colors they each represent a different # of tickets they won ), and last but not least I saved spaghetti sauce jars with wide mouths, I put a different amount of tickets in each jar, which ever jar the coin falls in when tossed is the about of tickets won. After all the games where finished the children went over to the prize area which was just a cardboard box with prizes in plastic bags taped on with labels above each section 5 tickets, 10 tickets and so on. Just like at Chuck e Cheese the children then picked the prize they wanted and bought it using there tickets. (I bought the prizes on EBAY mostly McDonalds toys in bulk or lots very inexpensive). They could also purchase popcorn, animal crackers, hotdogs, juiceboxes, and soda with there tickets. We also had a Piņata'. Also had the children all sit in a circle right before present time: I took small gifts and a big roll of streamers. I started with one gift and wrapped it with the streamers until you could not see it anymore then wrapped another one in until all where wrapped in one for each child at the party with quit a bit of streamer in between each to make it more fun for everyone. We passed the streamer ball to each child and let them unwrap the ball until they found the next gift. When this was over the birthday boy got to open his gifts. Instead of cake my son wanted cupcakes much easier for me. I bought white frosting and used food coloring to make the frosting bright rainbow colors, we also had hoodie cups. The children had a ball my only regret was it was to short you need at least 3 hours for this, so you don't have to rush. P.S. the tickets where also purchased from Oriental Trading Company too!
