Carnival Party!

This was one of the all time favorite parties I've thrown for my kids!  Due to weather conditions in Utah, you have to be creative when your kid has a birthday during the cold season...and that's what we did!  We held an indoor carnival which included ring toss, pin the nose on the clown, the milk can toss, a goldfish toss, (with a live goldfish as the prize!), a photo booth, tickets, balloons, an amazing clown, (my friend Shanon & her daughter Olivia who love dressing up!), 

a prize booth full of dollar store stuffed animals and small trinkets that kids just love!  Hot dogs, popcorn and of course, candy were the meal of the day and when the party was over, the kids didn't want to leave! 

The pictures below turned out amazing so a special thanks to Torsten Bangerter of http://torstenbangerter.com and thanks to Meri of Imagimeri http://imagimeris.blogspot.com/ for the adorable carnival/clown pics that I used in my banner! 

What a sweetheart she is!

And thanks to all of my helpers!  

Gary, Chelsea, Kayla, Miles, Zack, Mackenzie, Jaede, Shanon, Olivia

You guys rock!

The feisty little birthday girl...!

Don't I have amazing friends?  Shanon & her daughter Olivia...they were awesome as clowns!

Crazy socks & cool purple converse, what clown doesn't have a pair of these?

Carnival fabric & birthday candles tucked safely in a covered platter for cake time.

Don't you just love all those colors?

Toss a ping pong ball in the cup and win a live goldfish (the parents were ecstatic when they picked their children up and found out they had a new pet!) 

20 little goldfish all in a row

Huge lollipops were the favorite prize!

4 years old is such a fun age!

An Abby Cadaby cake made by my budding pastry chef daughter, Kayla!  It turned out adorable!

This little boy makes for an adorable monkey, don't you think?

This was another favorite!

My frames around the house were filled with carnival pictures and old photos of me & my siblings at our birthday parties when we were kids...one of the photos is me holding a toy clown I received on my 5th birthday!  That was a fun find!

I used boxes, cake plates, baskets, anything I already had to stack & display food items, plates, etc...

I'm trying to convince the clown that she should go into business!

Used my daughter's little play booth as the prize store...it was funny to hear the kids so literal about their tickets...one little girl said, "I don't want to use all of my tickets on the games, I want to save some for the prizes!"  She was happy to find out that the tickets were endless but it made me happy that she felt as if she were at a real carnival, success!

Presents were fun and many thanks to the little gift givers!

I did save everything and will keep it and rent it to anyone who is intersted for a reasonable fee!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures and got lots of good ideas for your little monkeys!