For my daughter's 5th birthday, we are having a circus blow-out! The invitations are brochures announcing "The ____ Family Circus" and I used my computer graphics to make it look like a circus advertisement.  I am placing each invitation in an envelope, then placing the envelope in a (small) closed box of popcorn. I hand-delivered most of the invitation boxes and I made circus labels on the computer for boxes I had to mail. You can get small popcorn boxes at a restaurant supply for a low cost. I am using the bulk already popped popcorn from the grocery store to fill  up the boxes.  I bought 2 bubble machines from Wal-Mart to add a party atmosphere, as well as a circus music cd to play.  I ordered clown plates, cups, and napkins off the internet.....could not find any at local party or discount stores. I took a coloring book from Ringling Brothers circus and blew the pages up into posters at the office supply. I colored the posters with watercolor crayons (they color large areas easily) for decorations. I took plain colored party hats and glued pompoms on them for clown hats.  I also made clown collars by cutting felt scalloped circles and gluing small felt shapes on them. I added velcro circles to them so they would fit all the kids.  Food will be typical circus food including hotdogs, nachos, cotton candy, and popcorn. I am making the clown cupcakes for each child from the Family Fun website and my aunt is making a homemade circus cake using a Wilton pan. Our daughter's parties always have about 25-30 kids, so the activities have to be for large groups. We rented an elephant moonwalk to jump in.  My two nieces are dressing up as clowns and painting faces (cute face paint kit at Lakeshore Learning on the internet) and spraying temporary colored hair spray (all colors at local party store).  The SURPRISE of the party is a camel from a local party rental who will be giving rides. Favor bags are popcorn bags from Sam's Warehouse filled with clown noses (Oriental Trading), jumbo bendable pencils (Target $1 Spot), small bags of cotton candy (I took small cellophane bags and filled them with the large bulk  bags at grocery store), lip-shaped whistles, clown notepads, and Barnum animal crackers in the red train box. The children will also be wearing their clown collars and hats home. It took about a month of planning and work, but everything is made and/or paid for....now, we get to relax and PARTY:)