It was kind of like a carnival...

Last year, when I was planning Nathanael's birthday party, I wanted to do a carnival. However, given that I had only come up with the idea a few weeks before his party date, I decided to wait and do it for his 4th birthday, giving myself a full year to plan it! Brilliant. The wheels started turning and I was thinking of reserving the church building to have enough room, inviting ALL Nathanael's friends, both boys and girls, along with their families, feeding them all lunch, and having nicely decorated booths, each manned by a helpful mom. Well, a year really goes by quickly and I didn't start planning his party until a few weeks before. And I had a baby. And I'm just not THAT crafty. And I don't really have that level of energy. And so I did the best I could.
I decided 6 guests was all I could handle, so Nathanael got his 3 little buddies and his 3 closest cousins. Although, he was requesting the addition of all his lady friends to the guest list right up until the morning of the party. Sorry buddy, maybe next year.
To go with the carnival theme, I made a cake that was supposed to resemble a carnival tent...a German carnival tent apparently. I'm not sure it looks like a carnival tent at all, but at least the frosting was homemade. I put up a few carnival decorations. Ok, more like I put up one pennant that could accommodate a carnival theme.



I usually like to include a small craft. Thank heavens I kept it simple: the kiddos added their names with foam stickers to their treat bags. This they could handle pretty well on their own.



And I came up with a few carnival games that the kids got to take turns playing. They got to demonstrate their ball-tossing skills to knock down cans, as well as tossing bean bags, and also they got to fish in a small "aquarium".

 

I also filled a few balloons for each child with treats. They could employ whatever measures necessary to pop the balloons. This kept them busy for a little while, until one crafty child discovered that the balloons popped pretty easily if placed on the wooden bean bag board and then bounced upon by a rear-end.

 

We finished things off with one of Nathanael's favorite meals, hot dogs. And of course, every child's favorite thing, opening gifts.