For my Twin's 2nd birthday we had a Carnival Party.  For the invitations I printed out all of the "Carnival Information" - show time, date, place, etc. I had at the bottom to "Please call the ticket hotline to reserve your complimentary tickets".  I printed this out on white paper and cut it into a square.  I then took yellow striped paper and cut out a carnival tent top. I placed this right above the white square and it looked like a carnival tent.  I put a little flag on top of it, too.  When our guests arrived they saw lots of balloons and streamers and smelled freshly popped popcorn. We rented a popcorn machine and had served fresh popcorn for the whole party. In the basement I had set up a mini "Carnival Midway". There were 4 booths with games for the kids to play. Each child received a clown nose and head "boppies" before we played games.  One game we played was the milk bottle toss game.  I saved Milk Chug plastic bottles to play this game. We also had a duck pond where the kids had to be blind-folded and attempt to pick 3 of the same color duck. This is a nice alternative to the regular duck pond game - NO WATER!!!  We also had a Ping Pong Toss game - I lined up bowls on the ground and had the kids try to get the balls in the bowls. The last game was a ring-toss game.  I bought this for only about $5.00 from Oriental Trading Co. As we played each game the kids won a ticket. (Of course, everyone won tickets at every game). They also sell the ticket rolls through Oriental.  After all the games were played, they were able to go to a table and use their tickets to buy prizes. I went to the dollar store and had about 65 items on the table. The kids were very excited to shop.  The favors for the kids were a stuffed animal with a homemade collar that read "Thank you for coming to Brandon and Becca's carnival party". We also did have adult games.  The adults had to "Guess the Weight" of a brick. They also had to guess what was in a wrapped jar.  Finally, we had a special raffle for the adults.  They can "Earn tickets" by helping me change the babies diapers, feed them, and even just kiss them. This may sound like a rude idea to some, but my family got a kick out of it.  Everyone was more than willing to help me with the babies at this party. (I think I may have this raffle at every party - haha)  The adult prizes were huge boxes of microwave popcorn.  For thank you notes, we inflated a balloon, wrote a short note, and deflated the balloons and mailed them off.  Be sure the ink is dry before you deflate the balloon or it will smear.  The party was a huge success.