14299

Circus Party (2-4yr) Face Painting Tent

September 2006

Kristi in Waynesboro, PA  USA

Honorable Mention

Circus Party 2 and 4 yr. old - My daughter loves to go to the circus and my son loves animals and their birthdays are one week apart so we decided to have a combined circus party this year.  INVITATIONS:  I made invitations shaped as a circus ticket with a picture of my kids as the center attraction. 

At the top and bottom it read "Big Top - Admit All" then I listed the "Show Date" and "Performance Time".  It continued to read "Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of all Ages, The (last name) Family Circus is in Town!  Performing one day only, the Birthday Celebration of its two Greatest Stars (name) and (name).  Join us for face painting, a jump in the moonbounce, a visit from the (company name)ice cream truck and more fun than a barrel of monkeys!!  RSVP to the Ringmaster and I listed the "Event Location" as (last name) Family Fairgrounds".  This really set the mood for the party. 

DECORATIONS:  The party was held at our home, outside and we used our garage for the eating area.  I alternated red and yellow plastic table cloths and hung them from ceiling to cover the walls of the garage to look like a circus tent when you walked in.  The tables were also decorated with red and yellow table cloths with the food and cake tables having a balloon style table cloth.  The centerpieces were tall popcorn boxes with balloons and streamers coming out of the center.  So the kids wouldn't adventure out of our yard, we staked the yard off between each activity with string and balloons  we had a ton of balloons. 

I bought blow-up zoo animals from Oriental Trading and placed them in the mulch areas of our yard with a sign stating Please Don't Feed the Animals.  I also painted a huge sign and placed it where our guests entered stating Welcome to the Circus.  We also made a wooden stand and painted a clown on it with the face cut-out.  When our guests arrived, I had them wear a red clown nose as they placed their face through the clown stand and I took their picture as a souvenir to send out with the Thank You's.  The kids loved it and the pictures turned out great. 

FOOD:  We had circus food  hot dogs, nachos, popcorn (in popcorn boxes) along with mac & cheese, steamers, veggies and fruit.  For the kids drinks, I bought little hugs along with swirly straws.  I also placed animal toothpicks throughout the food to go along with the theme.  We had a local ice cream truck come to the party and it was so fun to see the kids lined-up to order their ice cream cones.  I had two birthday cakes so my son and daughter would have their own cakes. 

My sons cake had zoo animals on it and my daughters had a circus train with balloons and clowns on it. 

We also rented a moonbounce that was shaped like a huge birthday cake that had candles and everything.  This was a big hit of the party.  It was extremely tall and people were driving up and down our street just so they could see it. 

I also had a smaller blow-up ball pit as another activity.  A canopy tent was set-up as the face painting area and my sister-in-law painted the kids faces.  This was another big hit of the party. 

My husband also made balloon animals for each kid.  Towards the end of the party I handed out popcorn bags (also from Oriental Trading) to each child with their name on and we had a candy scramble. 

PARTY FAVORS:  I bought bright colored gift bags (Wal-Mart) and animal party stickers ($ Store)  I used puffy paint to paint each child's name on the bag and decorated it with the stickers.  In each bag was a bag of cotton candy, animal crackers, animal stickers and a lollipop covered with an animal lollipop cover (Oriental Trading). 

It was a lot of fun planning this party.  I received many compliments and everyone who attended truly had a great time.

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