A Family Circus

I had such a fun time putting on a circus party for my friend's daughter's 7th birthday. Here are the invitations. Inside they said:

              "Come one, Come all
       to the [Last name] Family Circus.
                   One night only:
           the birthday celebration of
           [girl's name] the Incredible.
                  Show Date: [date]

          Performance Times: 1-4 pm.

     At the [Host's last name] Fairgrounds.

 Don't clown around, RSVP at [phone number].

When The kids first arrived I had them paint water color circus pages that I found at Michaels for $1 while they waited for the other guests to arrive. I planned this to get rid of the awkward "getting the party started" feeling. But I found that it was even more beneficial because the guests arrived with great 7-year old excited energy and this helped them channel it toward an activity and away from each other. :-)

After the guests arrived it was Game Time! My wonderful husband built me this lion bean bag toss. We made the bean bags look like fish. My husband lovingly told me that they didn't go with the whole lion theme as much as I thought. But hey, cats like fish, don't they?


I painted this fish scene where the kids got a fishing pole and cast it behind the fish. I had a helper hidden behind the fish and she connected the fish to the pole so the kids could reel it in. each fish had a number 1, 2 or 3 on the back determining the size of the prize they got.

One of the kids' favorites was the popcorn dig. I got the $3 bag of pinata goodies at Walmart and mixed it with popcorn in a bucket. I blindfolded the kids and gave them 30 seconds to dig for prizes.

Another Favorite: The donut game. We strung donuts to the ceiling and they had to eat the donuts without their hands. It was quite fun to watch, but after a while we had to allow hands. We would still be there if we hadn't!

We had 3 sizes of prizes. Small: dum dums, sixlets, and taffies, pretty much the cheapest candy I could find.  Medium: glow bracelets, activity books, bubble wands. Each came in $1 packets. And Large: A mix of beanie babies and real carnival prize stuffed toys that my aunt so graciously donated. Thanks Auntie!

Before the games the kids got their empty favor bag and as they played the games they filled their bag with their prizes. The only thing is we had a lot more prizes than kids and I left the empty bags on the table. So as the kids had free time at the end of the party they came back to the game room and hit the jack pot on the prizes as they kept playing the games.  Some kids ended coming home with two full bags of candy and toys, Sorry Parents! I have learned about quantity control! :-)

We also had face painting and the birthday girls' uncle was in charge of balloon animals. That was a huge hit.

And then, of course, the food. We had a cotton candy machine at our disposal. I made popcorn cones, apples with carmel sauce (my less messy version of carmel apples) and hot dog howlers which is a hot dog recipe I found in one of my party books and even though I hate hot dogs with a passion, I hesitantly tried these and actually liked them!

What's a party without presents and cake?

Over all a great party. And I did it all under $100!