The Circus Party !!!

Christian got a cool car for his birthday that he enjoyed before his party. He took Carter for a ride around the sidewalk. It was cute to see them play together!



Auntie helped put "gas" in the car






Finally, after a year of planning this circus party was finally here! I have spent the last two weeks up in my craft room creating and putting together wonderful things for the kids to have or use at the party. I am exhausted to say the least but I am very pleased with all the wonderful comments and memories we created at Christian's 4th birthday party! Ericson was a trooper and helped me with every detail ( he even woke up SUPER early with me to help set up)!
We barrowed 6 tents and 8 tables from our friend who is a preschool director and a million chairs! The tents definitely gave the party a "circus" feel but was a lot of work to put up and take down!

Friday we started to set up for the party and the weather wasn't looking to great. I look online at 3 different sources and the local news and they were predicting a crazy thunderstorm! Ok, first off...I live in Southern California!!! It NEVER RAINS! So why would it rain after on eyear of planning this party on the day of the party? I was bummed!!!

I madly cleaned the house in case we would have to move the party indoors and was also trying to think of ways to make it a more circus atmosphere.

We woke up Saturday morning ti set yo and a couple drops of rain fell on us and then it blew over! It ended up being really hot!!!

We put up pompoms that hung from the house and also tied them int he middle of each tent. Then we hung some colorful carnival pendants from a really high tree and had it dangle down from the tents.

I purchased some construction paper to put on the tables which made if fun for the kids to color on. I made some circus kits up with some vintage coloring book pages, vintage puzzle and some crayons. They ended up writing birthday wishes for christian on the tables which was fun to read!

Each child got a colorful bag that had tickets inside for the games and 2 special tickets for the cotton candy and candy bar. At each game the children would win a prize and could stick it in their bags.
The games that we played were: a bowling game, bean bag toss, can toss, ring toss, shooting game, tic tac toe, duck pond game, ping pong toss, and lighting ball throw. We also had a jumper which was a hit with all the kids.

After the games were played everyone ate and then my sweet grandpa did a very special magic show. The magic show was funny and full of magic. It had everyone scratching their heads wondering how the magic magician did those tricks.

After the magic tricks we played a round of musical chairs and each child won a real goldfish! Then we sang happy birthday and had some cake!

Every child came up to me and told me how much they love the party. I had kids tell me that " this was the best party I've ever been to" and "This party can never be topped." I even had parents tell me that I should become a party planner! It was nice to hear such nice comments after all the hard work I put in for this party!

Here are some pictures from the big event!!

The fun jumper!






a view from the street




Each table was lined with a strip of white construction paper for fun crayon coloring time! I decorated the tables with vintage peanut bags with peanuts inside, cupcake picks, vintage noise makes and vintage party hats.


We had lots of hot dogs, mini hamburgers , popcorn cupcakes, chips, salad and of coarse popcorn to eat!




The candy bar was filled with all sorts of goodies. I had cotton candy on the table and some marshmallow pops I made. I filled vintage gumball machines with all sorts of sweets and twisty lollipops.




I placed peanuts in vintage circus peanut bags and vintage circus cupcake picks on the table.

Circus name tags that I placed inside a vintage tool box. This chair is a vintage costco chair...


The ticket booth Christian help paint!


We had a photo booth too. Everyone got a clown nose and I had a coat rack full of funny circus clothes, shoes, hats, wigs etc and they could put on whatever they wanted for their photo shoot!

I made Christian and Carter's shirt also (you can kindda tell from the pictures)






The kids had there own little seating place and I also put the white construction paper on the tables along with a little activity set that I made up for each child. They could sit and draw all over the table or play with the activity set that I made.


Some of my very best family friends helping with the booths (obrigada por tudo...voces foi demais!!! )


Lightning ball throw game


Bowling game


can game, ring toss and shooting game

Ping pong game


Every young child loves this duck pond game. Carter especially loved trying to take a bath in it while everyone was trying to play the game :)


This is a vintage game I purchased off good old Ebay! It really helped give the party a vintage feel by having different vintage games and elements here and there.


These pompoms were placed in the middle of every tent and hung down from the house also!


The shooting game was purchased at Target and was a hit! I'm thinking that this game would be perfect for a cowboy themed birthday party!





Little friends enjoying the bowling game


A happy kid! Can you see Carter in the background. He was going around to everyone's tables just eating off anyones and everybodys plates. It was really funny because that kid LOVES to eat!


The table was decorated with all sorts of different things. This was a Ferris wheel made out of tinker toys!


Ericson made flowers and swords out of some twisty balloons. I think he is the most handsome "clown" I've ever seen :) haha


My sweet grandpa did a special magic show at the party! It was a hit and settled things down for singing happy birthday and eating cake after.




Christian helping with the magic show!




Carter trying on the magicians hat!


Everyone watching the magic tricks!


Everyone loved this trick! He poured milk into the newspaper and made the newspaper leak. Then he told kids thy were in the "soak" zone. So he went to go dump the milk on the kids and out came confetti! They loved it!




Here is grandpa the magician with the rope trick. He had a little girl think of a "birthday wish" for christian and to put 2 separate ropes in a black bag. When she opened the bag the ropes disappeared and made the message " Happy Birthday" Christian.


We played a game of musical chairs after the magic show and every child won a gold fish!


Christian with his fish!


Christian was so excited to "blow" out his candles. Unfortunately the wind was bad and the only candle that got lit was the number 4.




This is going to be a VERY busy end of the year for me. I have the flea market coming up in September and then a trip to Disneyland with Christian, I am planning a Halloween party, and we are planning on going to Brasil for a visit! I also need to finish updating the shop which is a challenge with these 2 active little boys that are currently keeping me busy!!!

Have a wonderful week....!!!

beijos
Priscila