G's Circus Carnival Biggie Birthday Party

Birthday boy after bouncing for a few hours

We celebrated G's Biggie Birthday on Saturday with a circus/carnival themed party!  For those of you that don't know, a biggie birthday is when you turn the age of the day you were born.  So G turned 3 on the 3rd of August.  The older girls and I made a bunch of carnival type games, we rented a carnival themed bounce house, and had a petting zoo come!  I'm pretty sure the kids were not bored.

Circus Tent Cake

G wanted a chocolate cake so David made him a circus tent.  He also wanted animals so the older girls and I made lion, monkey and elephant vanilla cupcakes for variety.  They turned out really cute.

Elephant cupcakes

These are made with blue melting wafers (ears and trunk), mini M&Ms for the eyes and banana runts for the tusks.

Lion cupcakes

These are made with mini M&Ms for the eyes, orange Apple Jacks for the ears, heart runts for the nose, and pull'n'peel Twizzlers for the mane.

Monkey cupcakes

These are made with chocolate Cheerios for the ears, mini M&Ms for the eyes, chocolate Jimmies for the hair, purple Jimmies for the nose, and pull'n'peel Twizzlers for the mouths.  You can make a variety of expressions with the Twizzlers.

More monkey cupcakes

Sprinkle Cupcakes

Food Table

We had a variety of food: apples, strawberries, grapes, cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, veggies, cotton candy, snow cones, circus cookies, small bags of chips, little smokies with rolls, etc.  And of course the cake, cupcakes and variety of Blue Bell Ice Cream.

A put the cotton candy in smaller cups for everyone.

These are easy to serve and fit the theme perfectly!

Balloon Towers

The older girls and I also made a few balloon towers for the party.  I think they turned out awesome, especially since these are the first ones we have ever made.  We bought the balloons at Dollar Tree so they were very affordable to make.  We used balloons, curling ribbon and our lungs!

The Petting Zoo

We had a petting zoo come for the first hour of the party.  There were goats, chickens, chicks, bunnies and a baby pig!  G loved the animals.

G in the petting zoo.

Petting the baby pig.

The pig took a nap!

 The baby chicks were so cute!  And popular...

G petting a chick.

 A with a chick

 D with chicks

 Having fun with the chicks.

Here is the bounce house!  It was a large one and held up to 10 kids at a time.

G jumping around.

I took this photo at 3:33 on the 3rd of G turning 3 - that's a lot of 3's.

Onto the games!  We had a Ring Toss, Tic-Tac-Toe, Ping-Pong Toss, Army Man Knock Down, Duck Pond, Cup Knock Down, Paper Airplane Toss, Fish Cup game, Bubble Station and water balloons.

  

Our Ring Toss Game

I had some extra science fair boards left over from the CoOp class I taught last year so I was able to use many of them for the games.  We also already had various colors of spray paint on hand.  First we used a small nail to make the holes for the lollipops.  Then, we spray painted the board gold.  We put the lollipops in the holes and attached our sign.  The girls wrapped IBC Root Beer holders with shiny, red wrapping paper (bought at Dollar Tree).  I purchased the rings on Amazon, they are perfect.  You have two option for this game, get your ring on a lollipop or one of the bottles!  Pretty simple.

Tic-Tac-Toe Game

For this game we hot glued a large piece of red felt to one of our boards.  I purchased the felt from Michael's and used a 40% coupon.  We made the outline of the game with duct tape that had a fun design.  Then I took ping pong balls (from Dollar Tree) and placed Velcro all over them.  I happened to have quite a bit of Velcro at home from past projects.  You toss the Velcro balls at the felt and see if you can get a tic-tac-toe.  It's harder than it looks!

Ping-Pong Toss

For this game we hot glued large red cups and small red cups onto our project board.  We chose to leave this board white and decorate it with green stickers that we already had on hand.  We bought both sizes of cups and the ping pong balls from Dollar Tree.  To play this game, you simple toss the balls at the cups with the goal of getting them in - the smaller cups are a great challenge for older kids.

 Army Man Knock Down

The girls made this game from an old cardboard box.  They cut the holes and spray painted the box silver.  C let us borrow a few of his Nerf guns and bullets.  We purchased a pack of army men at Dollar Tree.  Using the Nerf gun, you see how many army men you can knock down.

 

Duck Pond

 Bottom of the ducks

For this game we filled a large silver bucket with water beads (we already had these on hand).  Kids love water beads, they are super fun to play with.  We bought several different colored and sized ducks from Walmart.  Using a Sharpie we put different shapes and letters on the bottoms of the ducks.  The goal of this game is for kids to find two ducks with matching bottoms.

 

Cup Knock Down

We spray painted this board yellow.  We used both the large red cups and small red cups for this game.  The squishy, animal balls (zebras, lions, and tigers) were purchased from Dollar Tree - they are so cute!  For this game, you throw the balls at the cups and see how many you can knock down.

Paper Airplane Toss

To make this game we first cut four different sized circles out of our board.  We then spray painted it blue.  I printed a few white clouds on printer paper and we glued them to our board.  We already had a pack of paper specifically designed for making paper airplanes but any paper will do.  I had the kids make a few samples.  The goal is to get your airplane through one of the holes.  The smaller the hole, the more challenging the task.

 Fish Cup Game

We spray painted this board yellow and kept it super simple.  We filled clear, plastic cups a little more than halfway with water.  Six of the cups contain squirters (purchased from Dollar Tree).  The goal of this game is to throw your ping pong ball into one of the cups with the squirters.  That's it.

 Bubble Station

We had a variety of bubble containers and bubble wands for the kids to use.  I think the favorite was the bubble machine!

Water Balloons

Towards the end of the party, the kids had a water balloon fight.  It was a nice way to cool off.

Tickets and clown noses for the kids.

The clown noses in action!

Clown G

Prize Bucket

We had a bucket filled with prizes for guests to choose from when they were leaving.  Prizes included squishy/animal balls, punch balloons, various lollipops, cars, small zoo animals, mini cotton candy, crazy straws, giant frogs, ring pops, rubber ducks, etc.  There were a lot of options.

G posing with his cake.

Singing to G

I am fairly certain that G had a blast.  He was super happy the entire party and couldn't stop smiling.  If you are thinking about having a circus or carnival themed party it is a great option!