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!!

Hello Kitty

Age of Birthday Girl: 4 years old
Age Range of Guests: 2-7 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

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

Invitations: Invitations for this party used a simple cut-out of Hello Kitty glued onto pink card stock. The party information was included on the back.

Cake: We took a basic round cake and decorated it using the image of Hello Kitty that we found on some stickers as sort of a template. Frosting was used to make the face and whiskers, with jelly beans for the eyes, nose, and the flower in her hair. We added some sprinkles for extra color and had cupcakes with the candy in the flower shape. We also found some Hello Kitty candles which worked very well on the cake.

Games & Activities: We had a craft for the kids as they arrived. They each had a foam bookmark to decorate as they wished with stickers, markers, and ribbon.

Then we played a game of pin-the-bow-on-Hello-Kitty that we had created for the event. We drew a large Hello Kitty on poster board and then made bows with sticky tape to use in the game.

The other game was a version of Bingo using pictures of Hello Kitty doing various activities. We created the board games by cutting & pasting pictures on the computer into different sequences and combination on each card.

Goodie bags: It was easy to fill bags with all sorts of fun Hello Kitty items from stickers to pencils and erasers to jewelry, etc. We added a few candy treats as well.

Finding Nemo

Age of Birthday Girl: 1 year old
Age Range of Guests: 0-5 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 0-10 years, depending on specific focus & activities (who doesn't love Nemo?!)

This was a fun party for our 1-year-old and her guests that ranged in age from infants to 5 years old.

The Cake: We found a picture of Nemo and printed it out on the computer to use as a stencil. After the 9x13 cake was cut into the correct shape the frosting was added, again using the picture as a guide. We also made cupcakes and decorated them with blue frosting, frosting or gummi fish, and sprinkles.

Games & Goodies: We had kids fishing for prizes, crawling through tunnels of "water", and playing matching games with Nemo cards. Goodie bags included Nemo stickers, ocean/fish toys, and candy appropriate for the child's age.