Last weekend, The Destroyer celebrated his 2nd birthday.  We threw him a circus/carnival birthday party in the fellowship hall of our church.  The kids had plenty of space to run around and had a blast playing the games.

After calling several local clowns and all but falling over at their prices (If things don’t work out at my current job, I’m so becoming a clown!), I decided to purchase the Klutz Balloon Twisting book and some extra balloons.   My  husband (and later at the party, my brother) turned out to be the balloon twisting champion.  All I could make was a sword and a spastic looking dog. Below is a picture of Balloon Animal Training Camp.  My husband is actually making a magic wand in this picture.

Balloon Animal Training Camp

Since most of the carnival/circus paper goods I purchased from Oriental Trading had a red, yellow and blue pattern, I stuck with those colors.  One of the cute items I found on OT was the circus tent straw cups which are in the bottom right of this photo.  They were a big hit with the kiddies!  We started the party with finger foods including shrimp cocktail, a pretzel tray, cheez doodles, chips & dip and a veggie tray.  We later ordered pizza as the main dish.

Circus Party Food Table

Each table was decorated with a popcorn tub (found in the Target dollar spot) filled with popcorn.  I attached the balloons with those clippy things they sell to hold balloon down.  I surrounded the popcorn tub with little packs of animal crackers.

Circus Party Table Settings

Up close shot of the table centerpieces.  Several people told me that these animal crackers were awesome.  They, too, came from Oriental Trading.

Circus Party Table Centerpieces

I had a few games for the kids to play which included a Lollipop Tree, which I made from a plain old styrofoam cone and mini swirl lollipops from Oriental Trading.  I marked a few as the special pops which allowed the kids a bigger prize.  Since there were some tiny tots invited to the party, I did the fish game.  I found these fish (which floated beautifully) at the Christmas Tree Shop.  One fish was marked as the big winner.  The prizes were all animal toys from Oriental Trading (clappers, fish bouncy balls, animal pads & pencils, animal print sunglasses).

Circus Party Games

We also had a fish ring toss purchased from Oriental Trading and a circus themed bean bag toss purchase from Party City.  I found the circus cutouts online at Party Cheap. 

More Circus Party Games

The night before the party, I had the brilliant idea of doing a pin the tail on the donkey style game, but using the Destroyer’s face for a clown.  I drew the no-faced clown on posterboard with crayons and then printed a matching sized photo of the Destroyer onto cardstock.  Each face had a piece of double stick tape (from 3M) on the back.  When it was each kid’s turn, we put their name on the Destroyer’s face piece and let ‘em at it.  I’m very proud to say that outside of splashing in the fish game water, this game was the hit of the party!

Make Your Kid a Clown Circus Party Game

I purchased this Ka-Boom photo op online at Party Cheap.  It was surprisingly cheap (about $5).  I took pictures of each child that attended the party.

Circus Party Photo Op

I had originally planned to make the Popcorn Cupcakes from the Hello Cupcake book, but time did not allow.  I picked up this clown cake at Costco.  Mmmm….cake.  (If you didn’t already know, Costco makes really good cakes.)

Circus Party Clown Cake

 All in all, a good time was had by both the kids and the adults.