Come One, Come All!

Ladies and Gentleman! The post you've all been waiting for...the Circus Birthday Party!!

There was a photo booth:

Scott tying balloon animals: 

Kids crafting a clown hat: 

People eating yummy food, which consisted of hot dogs, a fruit and a veggie tray, animal crackers, Nutter Butters (because they're shaped like peanuts), goldfish, baked fries, popcorn and cotton candy: 

12 year old girls from church to help run the games (here they're taking a break to eat lunch): 

  3 cakes for 3 kids-- walnut carrot, red velvet & a great big chocolate cake:

 And a  huge crowd of friends to share our celebration with! 

It was such a crazy party, but everyone had a blast. We held it in the Ramada at our church building, which was perfect! The picnic tables and big grassy area are all fenced off, there's plenty of parking, and we were able to use the bathrooms & kitchen inside the church. Things got off to a rocky start, though, because we didn't have everything quite set up when people started to arrive. Another problem we had was that we planned to have the kids play in the water at the end of the party, but we couldn't find where to hook up the hose! We found out you have to have a special key, and a member of the Bishopric has to come and open it for you, but they we gone on the Father & Sons Campout! Fortunately Bro. Alger made it back in time to get us hooked up. Hallelujah!

We had a bunch of carnival games set up and had some girls from church help the kids with the games, so everyone had a blast with that. The games we played were Ring Toss (I made it using a cardboard box & water bottles, and used dive rings to toss around the bottles), Hole-in-One (with a little putting green), Bean Bag Toss (I got a banner with a picture and holes in it from Michael's on clearance for 3 bucks!!), Lion Tamer (I covered a hula hoop with orange and yellow paper like flames, then we taped the hoop to a sawhorse and the kids had to throw a stuffed lion through the hoop), Tightrope Walker (walk across a 2X4 on cement blocks) and Seal Training (balance a beach ball on your nose like a seal). After playing each game the kids got tickets which were going to be redeemed at a booth for their favor bags, but it didn't quite work out that way. Oh, well.

I made these little signs for all of the games & the food. We also had a jar of gumballs, and people had to guess how many were in the jar. The closest guess got to keep the jar of gumballs.

After cake the kids played in the water. We set up our triple racer slip n' slide, as well as a 'crazy hose', with wiggling arms that shot water all over the place. We originally planned to have the party go from 10:30 to 12:30, but it ran way longer than that! I think some people didn't leave until 2 or later! But, the kids were having a good time, so that's all that matters.