Harley's Retro Carnival Birthday Party

My daughter Harley absolutely loves the carousel or as she called them for a long time "the horsies," so we decided to have her party at none other than one of the most beautiful, restored carousels right here in Brooklyn Bridge Park, overlooking the NYC and the Hudson River.

I decided on a sweet, retro, yet modern carnival theme. I had so much fun coming up with creative ideas to turn it into our own little carnival style party. I focused mostly on using that theme for all the decorations, which often times at my parties, do double duty as the take home goodies and party activities too. I incorporate them all into the party itself. I find this is a creative way of saving a bit of money on the decor while making it fun for the guests and beautiful for your table and backdrop as well.

One of my favorite things that made the table pop were the red & white retro style carnival popcorn boxes. I filled them with popcorn chips actually because popcorn for 2 year olds is actually not a good idea, but they looked super cute as part of the decor. I floated some yellow ducks in a bowl filled with aqua blue water for the old carnival game Find a Lucky Duck and they also doubled as a take home goodie. Take a Prize! For that, I filled up pretty colored vintage style toy capsules with little prizes like stampers, stickers and tattoos and put them in a container so parents and kids could take one on their own for their goodie bags. Speaking of goodie bags, I loved the cute retro style pink polka dot bags I found and printed some cute labels to personalize them. They said " Harley's Birthday" and matched all the party printables. I also scattered matching "Admit One" carnival tickets all over the tables.

One of my favorite cute items on display were the mini cotton candy cones. You just can't have a carnival without cotton candy! I couldn't resist the pretty swirly pops that also doubled as a take home goodie too, along withe the Win a Fish swedish fish and goldfish goodie "fish bowls." It all made for such pretty pops of color at the table. The balloon cupcake toppers and the sweet mini personal cake (dairy free for my girl) topped with a sweet paper carousel from Etsy provided the finishing touch. It was a super fun party and all the guests had a blast (and a little blast from the past too)!

• What People Ate

  We kept it simple and had pizza, some cold veggies, fruit salad and cupcakes. popcorn chips for snack

• What People Drank

  Juice and water

• Desserts

  Cupcakes, cake, cotton candy, swedish fish

• Party Favors

  Inflatable cowgirl stick horsies, swirly lollipops, mini toy capsules with stampers, stickers and tattoos inside, little rubber ducks, swedish fish "bowls"

• Activities / Games

  Face painting, jumping on the inflatable horses, coloring carnvial theme coloring books, riding the carousel, ring toss game

• Gail -face painter & friend

  Other