Kanon’s Homemade Carnival

You all know I mentioned wanting to have a carnival for Kanon’s first birthday. Well, we did it. And it was a blast. 

Now before I share the pictures I want you to know that there were SO many things that weren’t finished in time for the party. This is not an unusual occurrence in my life; usually, as the party draws near I lose excitement and think that it would be better to just cancel the party instead of have it unfinished. And after the party, I usually think how wonderfully well it went, but it would have been better had it been all I had planned. Kind of a perfectionist like that. HOWEVER, that was not the case with this party. 

Now on to the photos. I’ll start with our carnival games. These pictures are not good at all, many blurry, but it’s all I have. Since I wasn’t going to have any family around at the party to help out, I was going to hire a girl to photograph the party, but that was one of the things that didn’t work out…. So look beyond the quality of the pictures please. 

Games:

bean bag toss

knock ’em down

pick a duck

make a match

face painting

strike a pose

The bean bag toss: made the day before the party out of three pieces of foam core, with a free hand circle cut out with a kitchen knife in each one, then wrapped in some wrapping paper I had in our giveaway collection in the basement, the three boards taped together and propped up with scrap wood

Super cute candy bean bags: courtesy of our neighbor

Knock ’em down: cans are empty yogurt containers that I started saving for this very game, once washed and dried Karston and Kyrie helped by putting a handful of beans in each container (to add a little weight so the wind wouldn’t knock them over), I then glued the lids on and spray painted them

The polka dots on the table: Karston and Kyrie’s creation (I tried to include them in party preparations just enough that they felt they had a part but not so much that they weren’t surprised by the party as well)

Pick a Duck: rubber ducks picked up on my second trip to a Super Wal-Mart in 2010, letters written with a sharpie on the bottom of each duck

Pick  a duck, tell me what letter is on the bottom, get a prize

The younger kids just loved playing with the ducks…and the water.

Make a Match: a classic memory game, I spray painted clothes pins a golden yellow, glued them to the poster board, in about 10 minutes on Friday afternoon, I drew and colored six pictures on the computer, printed them out, adhered red cardstock out of my stash to the backs of the pictures, cut them up, and arranged them under the clothes pins

The older kids enjoyed this game. 

Face Painting: face paint (!), jar of water, mirror for the kids to see their cheeks

I started out face painting. However, on one of my trips up to take care of something else, the kids started to paint each other’s faces. This turned out to be a genius idea. Why I didn’t think of it when Kyrie was painting her own face before the party started, I don’t know.

Strike a Pose: a red tablecloth which should have gone higher (and lower) adhered to the garage door about 10 minutes before the party, props included: silly glasses found in party section of Target, mustaches cut out off cardstock 2 minutes before the party, a headband with strips of cardstock folded in a zigzag and taped on made about 30 seconds before the party

This was A LOT of fun. Each family had their picture taken in the silly props!

 

 

The Prizes (no pictures):

glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs (pkg. of 8 in the dollar section at Target)

animal shaped foam capsules -you know, put the pill in the water and a shape appears (party section of Target)

glow stick bracelets (pkg. of 15 in the dollar section of Target)

 

The Food:

Hot Dogs

Mini Corn dogs 

Watermelon

Animal Crackers

Popcorn

Buttered Popcorn Jelly Bellies

Gumballs

 

This was my favorite part of the pre-party: “creating” the food table.

The stripes were made the afternoon of the party using duct tape. I would so be a person to paint a wall or stripes or a mural for a party, but since this is a rental, duct tape will have to work. Don’t they look so happy? I wanted to leave them up.

 

And you can’t forget….

The Cake:

Meg’s Rainbow Cake

It was a HUGE hit! People were surprised it actually tasted good. Hello, I’m not all about looks.

Do you think he enjoyed it? He ate the whole purple layer in one bite, and the rest of the piece, and then went after Kyrie’s. 

 

Wow that was a long post! We enjoyed celebrating Kanon, the year we’ve had with him, and the year we’ve made it through!