Party Pictures

The Pinterest photo that inspired me...



My attempt to recreate it...



The sign I did not want to spend $30 on from Oriental Trading...

The sign I made for $5.75 with simple supplies from Menards...

These were my favorite things! And if I could have only found a better polka dot paper, I would have been 100% satisfied with them, but I was still happy with how mine turned out.



The penant flag banner from Pinterest...





The popcorn holders, and the little penant flag banner-both were a success.



I'm slightly disappointed in myself because in the maddness of the party I did not stop to take the pictures that I wanted. I wanted close ups of the popcorn holders, the candy, the party favor boxes, the games, etc. Luckily my brother in law, Dave, was kind enough to take some photos for me so I'm not at a total loss.

And this is what it's all about. Kids having fun! They loved all the games, I don't know if you can see in the background, but there was a balloon popping game (throw darts at a board of balloons)-which proved to be harder than it looked. I also built a Plinko board, the two boards were just $5 plywood boards from Menards, I spray painted them red and used white duct tape (and a level) to make the white stripes. There was a game with old cans stacked up that they threw a ball at, I just used old soup cans and sprayed them blue, really easy-and free {except for the spray paint} and finally bought some feeder fish from the fish store and $1 glass jars and viola! a carnival toss-the-ping-pong-ball-and-win-a-fish game. They all got to take a fish home with them! How fun is that?

I wish the candy table would have turned out a little more full like the inspiration picture, but then I found out how much candy costs and we had to scale back a little. I'm not even going to post how much I spent on candy - just in case the farmer decides to read this one...but then again he will be getting the bill-whoops. But there's something about turning 3-its like the first time a kid realizes what's actually happening, Jack anticipated this party for weeks and helped me pick out everything and get it all ready-so we wanted to go all out. But the farmer's not off the hook either, he went all out and bought the kid a Power Wheels Jeep! That made the t-ball bat, baseball and new books I bought Jack look like nothing. Oh well, I guess I threw the party, that's gotta count for somthing, right?

So, if you want to throw a carnival party and need a few ideas, let me know or head to Pinterest-oh and start saving your pennies now-you're gonna need them! But it was a big hit and everyone enjoyed themeselves. Carnival party = success! Here's to another fun year ahead and looking forward to more fun ideas for birthday bash #4. Maybe by then I'll also be planning a 1st birthday...we'll have to talk to the farmer about that one *wink*

Farewell from the farm,

-The Farmer's Wife