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Circus Theme -10yr- Popcorn, Peanuts & Snow Cones

June 2004

Esmeralda in San Antonio, Texas ,United States

Honorable Mention

For my son's tenth birthday we are planning a circus/carnival theme.  I planned it all around some plastic popcorn containers I found in the Target Dollar Spot.  They are red and white stiped and I plan on using them as a favor bag alternative. In them I am including a small bag of animal crackers, a crazy straw, a plastic clown nose, blowouts with a balloon or clown print and some candy.      

For the invitations, I found a circus postcard on the Ringling Bros. web site and printed them out on the computer.      

For decorations we are using red,blue and yellow for the color scheme.  Lots of balloons and streamers in those colors and penant flag garland.The party ware is in the same colors and the party hats have a balloon print on them.  We are decorating our yard gazeebo with steamer to make stripes and have it resemble a circus tent and hanging some stuffed monkeys on the railing.  We are putting up signs to designate the different areas. One for popcorn with a big bag of popcorn, one for cotton candy, for hotdogs, etc. each with a big cut out picture I printed out from an art software disc. We are also putting up circus posters on the fence.     

We are setting up a game boardwalk area with make shift booths decorated with signs to label each game.  We have a duck pond game ( I purchased a huge red bowl from a dollar store that we are filling with water and little rubber ducks also purchased at the dollar store that came four to a pack).     

We are having a ball toss game(like Bozo's grand prize game ) with small sand pails and ping pong balls.     

A ball toss game with a pool basketball toy I purchased at the dollar store.     

A pin the nose on the clown game I printed off the computer.     

A ring toss game also purchased at the dollar store.     

A bean bag toss, with homemade bean bags I sewed from a red fabric with stars on it, thrown into a masonite piece of wood my husband cut holes in and we decorated with our theme.     

And a golf putt game with a play golf set I bought for three dollars at Big Lots.     

I also made a lollipop game from a piece of styrofoam.  I took a round styrofoam ball and made it into a clown head by painting on a face and adding a smaller styrofoam ball for a nose. I used googly eyes and pipe cleaner curled on a pencil for hair. I made him a hat out of construction paper decorated with star stickers. I used a small colored dowel to attach it to the bigger square piece of styrofoam and stuck the lollipops into the square piece of styrofoam.     

For prizes we have twisty balloon kits I purchased at the dollar store, activity pads, mini cans of playdoh, plastic boats, water guns, face painting crayons, shaped snack containers and little bags of mini shaped erasers I filled myself with erasers I purchased at the dollar store.     

For activities we have a trampoline to take the place of a moonbounce(it has an enclosure), face painting, and twisty balloons.  We are also setting up a build your own sundae table.  I found some plastic bowls in the shape of an ice cream cone with matching spoons at the dollar store. Four to a pack, for a dollar.  We are setting out different flavors of ice cream, some scoops and toppings (cookie crumbles, gummy worms, sprinkles, chocolate syrup) for the kids to make sundaes.  They get to take the bowl and spoon home as a favor also.     

For food we are doing hot dogs that we are serving in some plastic red and white striped trays I also found in the Target dollar spot(four to a pack, for a dollar). The kids can also take these home. And serving chips in big red and blue bowls. For drinks I was lucky to find a six pack bottles of juice in the Target dollar spot on clearance for a quarter. So I stocked up for the party.     

We purchased a snow cone machine at Walmart and are making snow cones. And cotton candy from a previously purchased cotton candy machine.      

For table centerpieces, I took some plastic boxes(also purchased in the Target dollar spot, printed out a clown head(on cardstock) from the hp web site, attached a strip of cardstock folded accordion style to the clown head and then to the bottom of the box, filled the box with the shredded decorative paper and made a jack in the box for each table.      

For extras, I filled sandwich bags with popped popcorn and peanuts in a shell. I printed out some labels off a circus web site and attached them to the individual bags to make them look more authentic. I put them into red baskets for the guests to help themselves.     

On the back of each chair we are tying a ballon with a small toy inside and writing the guests name on the balloon.     

The cake will have clowns and a carousel we purchashed at a party store.      I hope the party will be a great success and I hope the ideas will help some people out.  Unfortunately, I came across this site after I made all my purchases and planned out my party.  This site has a lot of great ideas.  Next time I know exactly where to go first for party planning ideas.

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