Bailey's Circus (& Carnival)

For my daughter's fourth birthday, she suddenly came up with (all on her own) a circus party. From the back of the car, on the way to our next destination from preschool, she started rattling off the things her circus party would have, courtesy of the Oriental Trading catalog in her little hands. I had considered a lot of party themes, but a circus had never been one of them. So, I had to see what I could do and ended up combining it with a carnival, since every time she described it, she had a mix of both.

I sent out save the date magnets and made tickets as the invitations. I wish I had pictures of the invitations. Or could find the file I made.

When I think of the circus and a carnival, I think mostly about all the food, so I let that inspire me. We had a "concession stand" complete with a hot dog roller. We also had nacho cheese for nachos and pretzels, potato chips, soda, popcorn, and whatever else I forgot to take a picture of. (I didn't take any pictures of the concession food!) I also had a carnival style snow cone machine, peanuts in little circus-styled dixie cups, my punch fountain, snacks for even the youngest of guests- Gerber Puffs and Wagon Wheels. (The babies also received their own special gift bags with a zoo animal bib and bowl. We had three young guests.)

The photos will speak for themselves when it comes to most of the activities. I had the large room split, so it looked like a carnival in most of the room with tablecloths hanging in the back looking like a circus tent. Everyone thought those were for looks. They hadn't realized I had more activities behind the "tent." Other than that, we served ice cream cake, which is what the birthday girl wanted, and she insisted on having a cake stand with clown feet. We did our best to make it as customized to her wishes as possible. :)

• Desserts

  Ice cream cake!

• Activities / Games

  Spending some time at the carnival making sand art, seeing how strong they were, picking a lollipop off the lollipop tree, the duck pond, and then visiting our circus and being part of the act- lion taming and the seal throwing the basketball through the hoop. Raiding the snack cart. Then lastly, the pinata.

• Party Favors

  Where do I begin? The kids received circus stickers, ice cream cone bubbles, their ice cream sand necklaces, a balloon, balloon animal, lollipop, circus duck, candy from the pinata, clown hat, clown nose, spiky zoo animal ball from lion taming, miniature inflatable beach ball, Cracker Jacks, snack-sized pouch of microwave popcorn to take home, box of animal crackers, bag of orange peanuts, bag of cotton candy and the babies received a zoo bowl and a bib. Even the Godparents dog had a goody bag with an elephant doggy toy and doggie animal crackers.

• Best Moment

  All that was left of the pinata- the clown's head.

• What People Ate

  As much circus and carnival food as possible! Hot dogs, pretzels, potato chips, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, and snow cones.

• What People Drank

  Soda and punch.

• Most Touching Moment

  Watching all the kids and adults alike enjoy the food and games.

• Funniest Moment

  Our daughter's Godparents' dog came and she got a Dum Dum sucker from the pinata.