Circus or Carnival

Age of Birthday Girl: 7 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Cake: This turned out great with just a little bit of extra effort.

1. The base is a simple round layer cake frosted in white.
2. A toilet paper or paper towel holder (depending on how high you want the roof) was covered with aluminum foil and placed in the center of the cake, pressing firmly so it stays upright.
3. Four lollipop sticks were placed around this center piece.
4. Computer printouts of carousel horses (double sided) were glued onto those sticks.
5. A roof was constructed out of card stock by cutting out a circle and then making a slit from the edge to the center.  Overlap the edges until you et the desired size/cone and then tape it together. Trim any pieces that are sticking out after the overlap step.

6. Four pieces of ribbon were attached to the center of the roof down to four more lollipop sticks evenly spaced near the edge of the cake

7. Candies were used to decorate the base - we used M&Ms and gummy lifesavers but you could use any favorite candy.

8. The candles were placed as close to the edge as possible just before lighting them to avoid setting the roof or ribbon on fire!

Activities: The guests were all greeted by dad, graciously wearing the clown wig and glasses (which the kids all wanted to try on of course). Once everyone arrived they were divided into groups to go through the circus activities.  

There was a face painting station where the kids could do their own painting on the faces or hands, or they could have a supervising adult do it, or another party guest. We used examples from the Klutz Face Painting book which had cards you could take out of the book with simple steps for a variety of creatures and designs.

Dad, the clown, showed the kids how to create simple balloon animals at another station.  Some of the kids really got into this one since most of them had never tried to make one on their own. There was a place to walk to tightrope (a wooden beam a few inches of the ground) and swing on a trapeze (our tree swing). And the kids got to shoot teddy bears through a "ring of fire" (a hula hoop with streamers) using a large elastic exercise band tied to a tree!

The finale was to gather everyone together and do a version of the clowns in the car.  First we piled everyone into our minivan.  Then we took video of them as they came out one by one.  The first video just had them all come out once, but then we tried it again with the back of the van open and out of the picture frame.  As kids came out they ran back around, put on a new hat or scarf to change their look, climbed into the back of the van, and came back through the door again - loads of fun!!

Unfortunately the videos are too large to include on the webpage but I think you get the idea!!

Yellow, Favorite Color

Age of Birthday Girl: 3 years old
Age Range of Guests: 2-7 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 1-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

When our youngest turned three she wanted a yellow birthday because "lello" was her "faybrit" color!

Invitations: We used a variety of yellow scrap-booking paper patterns to create a very yellow card covered in yellow stickers. The front had a "You Are Invited" stamp, with the party details on the back. (Sorry there is no picture - this party was sparse on photos for some reason).

Cake: At first we were stumped for the cake but then decided to go with the sun & rainbow theme - appropriately yellow and very easy! A 9x9 inch cake was covered in yellow frosting. We sprinkled yellow sugar around the edge to give it some sparkle and drew a face for fun. For the rainbow we decorated cupcakes in rainbow colors and placed them beside the sun cake. They also each had a smiley face on them and color-coordinated sugar for some sparkle.

Games & Goodies: Each child decorated a yellow paper plate "sun" with markers and stickers. They each had colorful crepe paper and ribbon to attach for the rainbow. We played color matching games, did a scavenger hunt for various colorful items around the house or yard, and sang some songs about rainbows & colors.

Yellow goodie bags were filled with with yellow pencils, yellow smiley face stickers, rainbow stickers, yellow bendy toys, fruit snacks, and a variety of candy.

Angels

Age of Birthday Girl: 5 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-8 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities

An angel party seemed like a fun idea (and it was) except it's hard to find angel decorations in May! We eventually found a few things that would work but this party may be easier to put together in late fall or early winter once Christmas decorations are in the stores.

Invitations: On plain white card stock we taped silvery star paper on the front and added small wooden angels we found at Micheal's Craft store (we cleaned them out of their supply at the time). We stamped "You're Invited" on the front and then wrote the party details inside.

Cake: The cake was made in a 9x13 pan. After covering it with light blue frosting we added mini-marshmallows, cut in half, to make clouds. Small wooden stars and angels were taped to toothpicks and inserted into the top of the cake. Cupcakes were covered with blue or white frosting and then topped with star & moon sprinkles and/or a mini marshmallow. We decorated the table with a white tablecloth covered with silver star confetti. It was a very nice effect overall.

Games & Goodies: The birthday girl wore a white dress, angel wings, and a halo. Party guests made their own halos out of silver or gold pipe cleaners. We found an angel craft from Oriental Trading and decorated them with markers, stickers, gems, ribbon, etc. We played games with angel themes such as a halo version of musical chairs, an angel scavenger hunt (find something white, something that makes music, something that has wings, etc).

Goodie bags were made from white paper bags decorated with the silver star paper and another wooden angel. They had angel stickers inside, silver glittery pencils and paper, candy, and gum.

Noah's Ark

Age of Birthday Girl: 2 years old

Age Range of Guests: 1-6 years old

Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 1-6 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Invitations: Our daughter (turning two at the time) helped us make these simple invitations. We cut out a boat shape from brown construction paper & placed it on a blue piece of paper. We attached a brown flap for the ark door in the front and glued a white piece of paper with party info on the back. Insdie she placed a variety of animal stickers for decoration.

Cake: We baked two cakes for this creation - one 9x13 and one 9x9. We covered the 9x13 with blue frosting and cut the square one in half.

One half of the square was covered in brown frosting and became the bottom of the boat. We cut about 1/3 off the end of the other half, and then sliced some off the long edge so it would fit nicely on top of the base. This was also covered with brown frosting. The remaining 1/3 was cut into two pieces diagonally so they could form the roof of the ark. This was also frosted.

Small chip sticks were used for the roof but pretzel sticks or other candy and snack foods would also work. We found fish sprinkles to add to the water, but you could also use gummy candy or plastic fish if you have those. Animals pairs (found at a party store) were placed around the ark and we also came across animal candles to stick on top. Cupcakes had blue frosting with the fish sprinkles.

Games & Goodies: The kids all made an ark out of paper plates and construction paper. They added stickers and/or drew pictures of animals on their ark. We gave them colored cereal O's to make a rainbow bracelet. We played animal games - making animal noises to a story, searching for animals in a treasure hunt - and read them the account of Noah's Ark.

Dinosaurs & Volcanoes

Age of Birthday Boy: 5 years old
Age Range of Guests: 3-8 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-8 years, depending on specific focus & activities

The Cake: For this cake we used a pan that is designed for the skirt of a doll - you can purchase it at most craft stores and it can have a variety of uses. For us it became a mountain and we placed it beside another base cake. We then covered it with chocolate frosting and added orange frosting for lava.

 Malt balls & crushed chocolate cookies were rocks coming down the side of the mountain but any round or crumbly cookie-type food will work. Green & blue frosting made up the grass & a watering hole. Around this we placed plastic dinosaurs. We also had extra cupcakes with blue or green frosting and a plastic dinosaur on each one.

Games & Goodies: Games were dinosaur themed versions of classics such as pin the scale on the dinosaur. Goodie bags included candy treats, dinosaur stickers, and plastic dinosaurs.