A Carnival Party

My baby turned 4 this month. How can that be? We hosted a sweet, carnival-themed party for family and a few playmates to celebrate my fun-loving girl. After spending hours (I kid you not) looking at carnival party ideas on Pinterest, I tried to keep it pretty simple.  

The birthday girl matched the color scheme in her party outfit of red and aqua, with a splash of pink! A dozen balloons in red, aqua and white dotted the house, as well as matching bunting over the food table.  

Speaking of food, it was carnival fare all the way! Kids and their grown ups snacked on chicken nuggets, mini corndogs, fresh homemade popcorn in red and white popcorn bags, rainbow fruit kebabs inspired by these, tiny cups of cotton candy, and chocolate chip cake.

My kids loved setting up activity "booths" for the partygoers. I was going to make signs using this font, but my artistic 9-year-old nephew beat me to it, and I love what he created. There was an art booth with circus-themed coloring pages, a ring toss, bean bag toss and pick-a-duck with carnival-themed ducks. Each game had a prize, including mini plush teddy bears, boxes of animal crackers and circus make-a-sticker scenes. The kids filled provided treat boxes with their prizes as they played.

 Of course there was face paining, courtesy of my talented sister.

 And clown noses for a little extra fun!

With so much inspiration out there, I could have gone crazy with this theme. But we kept it sweet and (relatively) simple and it was so much fun. Yay for 4!