Circus Birthday Party -Success!!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about my son's party that happened recently. After weeks of planning & designing, my son's Circus Birthday Party for his 5th Birthday was a a success! He was thrilled & so was I. We had a lot of fun & so did our guests. We had a concession stand with individual popcorn & cotton candy as well as a clown, balloon animals, games with prizes & we had lunch & Birthday cake of course too. The games wer "Pin the Nose on the Clown" which I did another post about earlier and a "Knock down the Pins game". We also had a basketball hoop game & a large Circus cut-out that you put your heads in to take pictures like you're one of the circus performers. My niece made balloon art as in; dogs, flowers, giraffes, swords, hats, swans. The kids loved that & my sister was "Bubbles the Clown" & she looked great! She diidn't really have a specific duty but, it really helped add to the circus effect to have a clown there. I used a tent canopy (like the kind you put up at a sporting event or over at festival booths) as a Circus tent & used it for the kids to eat under. I used plastic red & white table cloths (from the dollar store) that I cup up to make the tent "curtains". The tent turned out cute & it really made the circus look complete. I used a dog crate with stuffed lions & tigers in it to make it look like the animals were waiting in their trailer cages before performing. We served corndogs & chips for lunch with fruit as well. I made a large 12 in. round cake with circus stripes on it & put some circus figures that my son had on it. Baking is defintely one of my passions & I love making cakes. In the past, I've made much more elaborate cakes for Cameron's Birthdays but, I had so much other stuff to do that I had to do something more simple this year. I had circus themed goody bags for the all of the kids to take home &they had stickers, foam clown noses & Barnum's Animal Crackers in them as well as a couple of other trinkets. Cameron helped me fill them up. We even had circus music which was basically the same circus theme looping over & over but, no one seemed to mind & it realy made it seem like a real circus. Several of Cameron's friends & classmates came as well as his Grandpa (my dad) & my circus helpers (my sis, niece & 2 nephews). At the end of the day, we were all tired but, I had one really happy 5 year old to tuck in bed that night!

Cute Clown Party Game

So, I'm getting ready to throw my son a Circus themed Birthday Party in our backyard. One of the games that we'll be playing is "Pin the Nose on the Clown". I bought a cheap (for only $1.41!!) online at birthdaydirect.com and I glued it to a posterboard & wrote a sign for it on the posterboard. The game is really just a great clown face on thin, glossy paper so, I had to put it on something so, that I wouldn't have to stick it to a wall (the party will be outdoors. Alos, I felt that the games we play needed signs to explain what they were. The game comes with 12 paper noses that you cut out & you can put tape on the back of them to stick them to the clown face. Since the game was so cheap, I actually bought an extra one so that we would have more noses for more kids to play. There is also a cheap, black paper blindfold included but, we'll probably use something else instead. We will write each kids name on the noses so that we'll kmow who's nose is whose when they're all on the face. I think the kids will really like it.

Birthday Greetings

Here is an idea for when you're sending to Birthday cards (or other holiday cards) to someone out of state that you may not see that often. This is especially neat for grandparents, aunts & uncles, or cousins. Make a "Happy Birthday" sign & add the person's name and then take a pic of your kid(s) holding the sign. You can print the pic & tuck in with the card that you're sending. It's also a neat idea if your child has a friend that has moved away & then it helps to keep that friendship bond going when they see them in the pic. It's also cute to make a Happy Easter sign decorated & the kids could wear props like bunny ears etc. for sending to grandparents. The pic that I posted here was one that we made for my nephew in Florida & later, his parents said that he really liked getting that personalized greeting.