For my son's 6th birthday, we threw a carnival birthday party. I wanted a theme that suited boys, girls & adults.  I used construction paper.  The front had a picture of a carnival booth & a little clothespin holding a admission ticket.  On the roof of the booth I put my son's name & carnival birthday after it.  I glued this on a card stock & on one side I put a little poem stating he was having a birthday carnival. on the right hand side I put the information: date, time & location each on a picture of a balloon, which I cut out from construction paper.  For the balloon string I used yarn. On the envelope I used a clown stamp.  I started preparing for this party 3 months prior to the event being that I free drew all carnival themed" posters used paper chain links which were home made from construction paper I hung streamers from the center of my car port to all 4 corners & middle of the ceiling ( to make it look like a tent). I used a refrigerator box & painted & decorated for a ticket booth.  I hung pennant flags from all 4 corners of the booth. I passed out to each child who came a handled brown bag which consisted of 4 crayons 10 tickets & sand art.  They decorated their bags with the crayons & did the sand art as the other children came.  These bags were used to hold the prizes they would win.  For the game booths I used an idea from Martha Stewart & hung rope from the trees in my back yard & hung different colored sheets to signify game booths for each game I hand painted the name of each game. The games I had were:  I filled my childrens pool with ducks & numbered the bottom each number was the number of tickets the child would get I took the large empty formula cans I had left over (5) covered with contruction paper & glued to a wood board & bought ping pong balls in it I used 12 coffee mugs & placed them in a cardboard box & used wiffle balls to throw in it I bought temporary tattoos & had a tattoo booth  I used my sons plastic golf game & used foam puzzle peices as a golf course & also bought the cranium carnival forthouse which had a rolling ball game ring toss & 2 animals faces cut out (used for taking pictures of children when they stuck their head in it) The children used the ticket given to them when they arrived to play the games & if they won they would win tickets. As to not confuse the tickets the game controller would punch a hole in the tickets that the children used to redeem prizes I bought a sheet of cake from Costco that fit perfect for my theme.  It had three balloons.  I served hot dogs pizza & cotton candy. The party lasted from 11am- 4pm!!! The children didn't want to go home & kept asking me when the next birthday wouold be.  I had several children tell me that this was the best party they ever attendeed.   The parents also had a blast! Just by hearing that & seeing the smiles on their faces made me realizse that all the hard work in preparing this 3 month project was well worth it!!! Not to mention I work up 4:30 AM just to set this party up in my backyard."