Our Circus - Come One Come All

 

We had our Circus themed Madagascar party over the weekend and it was such a hit!  For those who do not know, Madagascar 3 Europe's Most Wanted hits theaters in just a few days, June 8th!

Our Food:  I went a little overboard on food because I just had such a good time coming up with more and more fun things!  We had Marty's Zebra cake (more details here), Alex the Lion Cupcakes (more details here), fruit cones, circus peanuts, cotton candy, popcorn, animal crackers, gummy bears, popsicles, and chips and guacamole!  Phew!

Some of the spread

Marty's Zebra Cake

 Fruit cones - portable and delicious!

 Traditional circus cotton candy

 Yes, circus peanuts made an appearance

 Homemade popcorn

 We had blue punch and juice boxes to drink!

Our Games:  The kids has a ton of fun playing games.  Yes, we didn't just eat the whole time :)  Our games included Pin the Tail on Gloria, Chalk Marty, Melman's Boogie, Lemur Limbo, Hot Madagascar, Balloon Round Up, and "Cheesy" Wig Fun!

THE LEMUR LIMBO

 This one is simple, just Limbo!

How Low Can You Go?

The kids can go pretty low...

The Adult Limbo Champs

Yes, this 6 foot tall gentleman beat me!

MELMAN'S BOOGIE

We all know that Melman is a bit germaphobic.  In this game you toss the Boogie Wipes to Melman to help him out.  The goal is to get the boogie wipe packets on Melman the giraffe.  If it falls off or doesn't make it to him, you try again.

 Tossing the Boogie Wipes

 A happier Melman with Boogie Wipes!

 PIN THE TAIL ON GLORIA

 

 D pretty excited about this one!

 Right on...

 A little high...

 A complete miss, but still fun!

 WATERBALLOONS

 

 Pick a partner, stand back, toss and hopefully catch!

 Tossing and catching...

 Everyone loves balloons

HOT MADAGASCAR PARACHUTTE FUN

We have an inflatable globe.  Just keep it in the air...

 High up...

I love this action shot.

CHALK MARTY

Help Marty become more colorful

Stage 1

And more colors!

BALLOON ROUND UP

 Use the pool noodles to round up the balloons...

 The only rule was to not use your hands.

It was fun to have balloons all over the yard.

CHEESY WIG FUN

The messiest of my games for the day.  One partner puts on a shower cap!  We cover it with shaving cream.  The other partner throws cheese balls and tries to get as many as they can to stick on the top of the shower cap :)

 Getting lathered up...

 More cream...

  Ready...Go

 Cheesy Fun

 Even the clowns got into it!

Showing off their "Cheesy Wigs"

Entertainment:  Face Painting, Balloon Animals, Clowns (Bouncy and Slim), Mask Fun, Movie Time (Madagascar and Madagascar 2), Circus Dress Up (Rainbow Wig and Clown Nose), Punch Balloons, and Juggling!

OUR CLOWNS: BOUNCY & SLIM

  These guys were awesome!  They had a full show for us complete with tricks and lots of balloon making!

 Blow...

 What's it going to be?

MASK FUN

 These masks were ready and waiting for guests to use!

 

Marty

 Melman

Gloria

Alex

Adults too!

FACE PAINTING

Face Painting Station with paints, brushes, and

instructions how to make a zebra and lion

 I practiced a zebra on B - not too bad

D wanted one too :)

And the kids did some face painting too!

BALLOON ANIMALS

 Balloon Animal Station

 There were giraffes

 Swords

 Cool hats and much more!

MOVIE FUN

Our backroom was set up for movies

 Both Madagascar and Madagascar 2 were watched

(Yes, it was a long - super fun - party!)

Movie time

CIRCUS DRESS UP

D with her attire!

 

 Our friend being silly...

 Yeah Jenn!

 I couldn't resist myself :)

 

More performers - these friends had a cute act they performed!

JUGGLING

 Juggling Fun

My husband is an amazing juggler so I couldn't resist!

I hope you can tell from this post but we had an amazing time and I will say that I have the most amazing friends!  What a great way to kick start our summer...

Disclosure:  Thanks to Crowdtap for choosing me to host this party and providing me with the digital Madagascar party kit. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Lion Cupcakes

 

 My favorite one!

I showed you my Marty's Zebra Cake the other day - now I would like to show you my lion cupcakes, aka Alex the Lion cupcakes!  These were so fun to make and I am very pleased with how they turned out.

 I used red, purple and yellow cupcake liners to match the Circus Madagascar theme of our party!

 B helped me make a basic white cake.  

 Out of the oven and cooling...

 You can see the faces forming here!

I made basic white frosting and then colored it orange for the face.  I used mini M&Ms for the eyes, runt hearts and skittles for the noses, cheerios for the ears, chocolate jimmies for the mouth and whiskers, and colored some frosting slightly darker orange for the mane.

 Voila!

Not only were they cute, they were tasty too!

What do you think?

Marty's Zebra Cake

We had our Madagascar Circus party today!  Stay tuned for my post on that.  I wanted to show you the zebra cake I made!

 Marty's Zebra Cake

Ingredients and Directions

 Recipe calls for vanilla powder but I just used vanilla

 Mixing

 More mixing

 When you divide the batter, you will get a little over 2 cups for vanilla and a little over 2 cups of chocolate (when you add the cocoa powder)

 This is the most important part - assembly!

 Alternate between chocolate and vanilla to create the stripe pattern

 Out of the oven!

 On our zebra tray at the party!

Voila!  Zebra stripes and tasty too :)

Pen Pals Kids Club Review & Giveaway

*** Giveaway Now Closed ***

Congratulations to CaseyCG!

Have you heard of Pen Pal Kids Club?  They are a global social network for children where kids can freely share, explore, and play with other kids around the world.  The site is advertiser-free, has built-in parental controls, and was recently rewarded with the TRUSTe seal of safety.

A checking out the online library

I set up an account for our family and for A.  Parents have to set up an account - this way the controls can be monitored.  A has been enjoying this site.  My kids do not spend a ton of time on the computer or any media really.  She recently sent off several pen pals requests and she is excited about making friends from different countries (and even her own!).  The site has suggestions for pen pals based on similar interests and activities.  The aspect that we have taken advantage of the most is the online library.  A loves going there and reading about anything and everything.

About Pen Pal Kids Club:

- Encourages a love for learning about other cultures

- Helps children embrace similarities and differences

- Kids can write and receive digital postcards from around the world

- Postcards are translated into 7 languages:  English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, and Chinese

- Advertiser-free site with built-in parental controls offers the ultimate in online safety 

About Pen Pal Kids Club from Shelley Aliotti the Creator and Founder:

The concept of Pen Pal Kids Club started when I was a kid…like many kids back then, around the world, I had a Pen Pal – Michi from Japan. Through her letters and mine we shared, learned and forged a unique friendship. That relationship, and fun, stayed with me as I grew, married, became a mom and now a grandmother.

In 1995, I decided to share this experience by creating My Pen Pal Scrapbook. I traveled to schools, groups, organizations and more. My Pen Pal Scrapbook made it easy and safe to share, learn and create friendships for life…worldwide.

I am proud to say that the original My Pen Pal Scrapbook has been read throughout the world. We are very excited that Pen Pal Kids Club has become more interactive, exciting and…much easier to use. Now as a global website, kids can Explore,Play and Share – within a completely safe site…from any computer! Kids are able to send digital postcards to one another and, with the speed of the internet, they can quickly see, that despite their physical and geographical differences, they are all much the same inside.

At Pen Pal Kids Club there will be no outside advertisers, members or hidden traps - this is a completely safe site. We sum it up by saying that, by joining Pen Pal Kids Club now, your family will begin safe, new adventures in Exploring, Playing & Sharing - in your home...and around the world! At Pen Pal Kids Club, on this virtual global playground, children everywhere will find that "The world is just a friend away."

Want to try out Pen Pal Kids Club for your family?  Keep reading...  

Now, onto the giveaway!  You can win a free 90 days to Pen Pals Kids Club!

Mandatory Entry:  Follow me on google friend and let me know, that's it!  Please be sure and leave your email so I can contact you if you win! 

Extra Entries, leave a separate comment for each extra entry.  As you can see, there are lots of extra entry opportunities so don't be shy!

1.  Follow my google+ page (2 extra entries)

2.  Follow my facebook page (2 extra entries)
3.  Follow me on Pinterest (2 extras)
4.  Follow me on twitter here (2 extras)

5.  Like Pen Pals Kids Club on facebook (2 extra)
6.  Like Pen Pals Kids Club on twitter (2 extra)

Giveaway will end on June 17th at Midnight.  Winner will be selected using a random number generator and will have 48 hours to respond.  If there is no response, I will randomly select another winner.  The prize will be emailed to the winner.

Disclosure:  I was blessed to receive my own free 90 days to Pen Pals Kids Club for review.  All opinions expressed are 100% mine.  Thanks so much to the sponsor for providing me with this opportunity and for sponsoring this giveaway!

Purex and Ladies Home Journal

Purex has teamed up with Ladies Home Journal!  They will be giving away 1-year subscriptions to a lot of winners.  Would you like to enter this giveaway?  You can sign up here.  This promotion will end on June 22nd!

12 Weeks of Summer Family Vacations

Register to win a summer family vacation.  This summer USFamilyGuide.com has created a promotion that celebrates the family vacation by giving away 12 incredible trips for families looking to create their own memories. They have hand picked some of the most memorable destinations their families have experienced and asked them to provide a FREE vacation to award to perhaps YOU!  Please go here to enter.  Good Luck!