We celebrated Xavier and Zarriah's birthdays a few weeks ago. We decided to combine their parties this year since we were having guests in from out of town for Zarriah's Christening. I had a blast planning it. We initially planned a Ladybug party for Zarriah. My daughter wanted to incorporate the ladybugs into the carnival theme, which presented a challenge. We decided to include a ladybug cake in addition to the bright colored cupcakes with carnival themed toppers. Didn't it turn out adorable. We rented a huge tent from a catering company and set up tables with red, blue, yellow, green and pink table cloths. We used 3 banquet tables on one end to feature the cakes and than placed another table with finger foods on the end. We served chicken salad sandwiches, wings, ladybug crackers, butterflies, which I forgot to get a picture of. The butterflies were orange slices cut in half, turned in the opposite direction and a slice of strawberry set in the center, potato salad, veggies and dip, chips and hot dogs.
Here's a picture of the ladybug crackers we served. The base is a Ritz cracker topped with chicken salad, a cherry tomato sliced for the wings, and a black olive held on with a plain toothpick. Both the adults and kids loved them.
This is Bubbles B the clown giving granddaddy a balloon hat. In the picture above, Zarriah is studying Bubbles B. This was her first experience around a clown. We were wondering if she was going to cry in the picture above, but after studying her for a few minutes they became good friends.
We set up a balloon dart board on one of the storage building. It was the perfect height for all the kids to participate.
We rented a popcorn and sno-cone machine. They were both hits as you can see. We were able to get a good deal along with the bounce house. We gave tickets to all of the kids and had an adult stationed at each event. Each event required 3 tickets.
The kids participated in a sack race and had a ball. We purchased these from Party City.
This is the buggy bus. We taped ladybug wings to the back and placed eyelashes over the lights to get a ladybug effect. The kids loved it, and I was able to incorporate the ladybug into the carnival theme.
This was suppose to be the Duck Pond game, but the kids had other plans for it. They decided to stand in it and cool off. If you are planning to use this game at a party, make sure you use weighted ducks so they can float. We also had a Veggie Can Toss. Unfortunately, it rained and we were unable to play the game. The kids headed to the Bounce House and we were unable to retrieve them. We had to literally start deflating it before we could get them out.
My grandson showing off his balloon hat.
I'm glad birthdays only come once a year, but the memories for my grandson will be forever. I plan to do a scrapbook, my other passion, so they can look back on this great carnival party.