For my daughter's 4th birthday we had a carnival.  It was great and all the kids had so much fun.  I rented a popcorn machine along with the popcorn mix and the bags and boxes (which were their goodie bags), moonwalk and bubble machine. For the activities we played carnival games. I had made signs on the computer that told what each game was and how to play.  Of course everyone was a winner.  Next to each game were the prizes.  Some of the games we played:  ring toss (game we had at home from Discovery Toys), bean bag toss (handmade from wood with different shapes cut out to toss the bags through)skeetball (electronic game borrowed from a friend), basketball throw (the one from Little Tikes), go fish (filled a bucket full of water and used the poles and fish from the Fisher Price fishing set), duck pond (I bought a tiny baby pool from Kmart for a 1.99 and got those plastic ducks from Oriental Trading), pin the nose on the clown (bought at Party City), bowling, putt putt golf (my husband had one of those electronic putting games), tennis ball roll (rolled balls down a piece of wood that had holes big enough in it so the balls would roll into but not through), face painting, and a decorate your own crown craft. When the kids arrived they received their popcorn box that had their name written on it and went around to every game, played it and placed their prize into their box. They went around to each booth until they had received all the prizes.  Prizes consisted of:  crazy straws, mini slinks, card games, pixie sticks, yo-yo's, bags of animal crackers, party horns, stencil rulers, bubbles, clown stickers, and mini bouncy balls. Most of the prizes were bought at the dollar tree and Eckerd's 39 cent sale (which is great by the way!!) The kids had the best time playing the games and winning their prizes.  They took turns playing games and going outside to jump in the moonwalk. For lunch we had the normal carnival food:  mini corndogs, animal crackers, popcorn, cotton candy, circus peanuts, shelled peanuts, chips and dip, sliced apples and caramel sauce.  The cake was a bundt cake that I iced with a glaze and placed sprinkles on top.  I also stuck a few animal crackers along with straws around the top with a piece of paper cut to form the top of our merry-go-round cake.  I had also made cupcakes frosted with white frosting and sprinkled with yellow, red, and blue sprinkles and to finish them off I stuck those clown derby heads in the middle. They were adorable. For added fun we made clowns out of ice-cream. Each child received a bowl with a big scoop of ice-cream in it to form the head.  We stuck a sugar cone on the top for the hat and sprayed the cool whip from a can around the bottom of the cone to form the clown's ruffle; then the kids got to decorate the face with M'M's, gummie worms, jelly beans, sprinkles, etc. to add special effects to their clowns!  For the present opening I had my daughter sit on a table so that everyone could see! The room which was our fellowship hall from church was decorated with balloons scattered all over the floor, streamers, curly ribbon and clown motif everywhere. For the paper products I decided to use red, yellow, and blue items to go along with the big top theme. You could even use the clown paper products if you want to but it was cheaper to buy the primary colors. Oh the plates did have balloons and streamers all over them but were still in the primary colors. I wanted to have a clown show up to do face painting, balloon figures and magic tricks but my daughter was a little apprehensive about clowns at the time.  But that would be a great added touch. The invitations read:  The Carnival Is In Town! Bring your clown noses and come over to New Salem Baptist Church Fellowship Hall to help us celebrate Ivey's 4th Birthday. Saturday, November 11 from 10:30 - 12:30.  We will be having carnival games, prizes, a moonwalk, face painting, carnival treats and more fun than a barrel of monkeys!!  Hope to see you under the Big Top!  This really was a hit especially with the parents, I think they had as much fun as the kids did playing all the games. Great idea that really could work for about any age!!  Remember that with any party RELAX and HAVE FUN!!!