Carnival Party Thank You Notes

I used my Corel Photo Album 7 to create picture collages of the kids to use as Thank You notes.

I wrote a personal message on the back of the picture, had Steel sign his name and sent them off.

Thanks to all!

Carnival Party Balloon Anchors

I lined the drive with balloons.  I cut the ends of wire hangers (okay, neighbor did this for me as we were running out of time setting up...) and tied the balloon strings to the hanger.  I pushed them into the ground along the edge of the drive.  Worked great!

Carnival Party Bean Bag Toss Game

I had plans of covering our cornhole board with a Carnival themed cover made out of poster board and attaching it to the top of the cornhole board.  I ran out of time so the Steeler's board did just fine!

The rules are the same concept as the Football Toss and Tin Can Strike Zone.  Each child has 2 attempts to get the bag in the hole.  Everyone wins!

The prize was a paddle ball!

Carnival Party Tin Can Strike Zone Game

I took 6 quart sized paint cans and spray painted them red, yellow, green and blue.  Then set them up as a pyramid. 

Rules:

Each child had 2 tries to try and knock them all down using bean bags.  I, originally, bought 2 smaller baseball sized balls but it was deemed by the hub and neighbor too dangerous.  If one, at first, did not succeed, they must go to the end of the line and try, try again.  Of course everyone wins!  

 The Prize:
A MARSHMALLOW SHOOTER!!!

These are so much fun!!!  Check out the individual post on Marshmallow Shooter and Ammo Bags.  We had a crazy Marshmallow fight later on in the evening after the party with the party leftovers.  We are not too sure who had more fun, the adults or the kids!

Carnival Party Football Toss

I have this wrought iron looking heart that is supposed to be used to hang a flower pot on.  Well, it only gets used for throwing a football through it at our house.  So, what better to use for our football toss?!

I tied balloons to curling ribbon...

Then wrapped the ribbon around the heart shaped flower pot holder...

Rules...

Each Child has 2 attempts to throw a football through the hole.  Once the child is successful he/she wins a prize.  If a child is unsuccessful he/she must go to the end of the line to try, try again.  Each child can only win one prize per game.  (Every child wins!)

Prize...

I found these fun crazy balls at the dollar store.  There is a super ball that you put inside a balloon.  Then you put the balloon inside the outer shell that you can see it the picture above.  You blow up the balloon, tie it and close the outer shell with the velcro closure.  When it is bounced, it goes every which way.  Crazy Fun!

Swifty The Clown

Swifty the Clown is the most fabulous balloon artist I have ever seen.  My girlfriend, Mei, had him for her kids' birthday party and I knew I must hire him for Steel's!

Check him out at http://www.swiftytheclown.com/.

Here are some of his creations...

Bat Wings for the Birthday Boy!

Spongebob!

Steeler's Helmet

Another Steeler's Helmet

Butterfly Wings

Monkey

 Butterfly/Fairy Wings

Bumblebee Bracelet

More Butterfly Wings

Steeler's Emblem

Octopus with Tiny Bubbles!

Another Spongebob!

Bike!  I don't think you can ride it Sean!

Lots of Aliens, Jet Packs and Bow and Arrows!

Flower Bouquet!

Jet Pack!

Madi had Swifty make a Steeler Birthday Cake for the Birthday Boy!  How Sweet!

Another bike!

This is just to name a few!  There were many more!  

Such as:

Lady Bug

Turtle

Lots of Flowers

Other Football Helmets that we won't mention

Bow and Arrows

Clowns

Butterflies

and more!

I think we need another occasion to have Swifty back!  

Carnival Party in Full Swing

I'm a bit OCD and did not want to post on the whole party until I posted on all the bits and pieces of the party that I wanted links to.  However, I have finally decided that I will just insert the links later as I post them.  So here it goes...

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather!  I'm always nervous when it comes to outdoor affairs especially Steel's birthday in October.  We lucked out once again!

I'm outlining the whole affair for you...

Carnival Sign in the front yard:

Balloons lining the drive:

See Balloon Anchors for the How To.

Balloons lined the fence:

Face Painting and Tattoos:

I enlisted a family friend, Jessica, to do the Face Painting.  She actually offered and did a wonderful job!

Jacklyn was our Tattoo Artist.  She did a great job sticking on those tattoos!  

Even Heidi got one!

Picture Booth:

Our Birthday Boy could not be convinced to get his picture taken, he was much too busy with everything else going on.  No sense in rocking the Birthday Boy's boat!  He was tired and not to be messed with!

Neighbor Michelle manned our Picture Booth and took all pictures for us as we tended to other party needs.  Thanks Michelle!  And thank you for all your help setting up as well!

Check out the individual Carnival Party Picture Booth post for details.  

Football Toss Game:

Check out the Carnival Party Football Toss post for details.

The Hub was put in charge of this game.  Somehow he finagled his way out of it by putting Cole in charge.  Go figure!  That's okay, Cole did a better job than he probably would have anyway!  LOL!  I hear that after the football toss was over, there was some kind of a crazy pick up football game going on back there!

Tin Can Strike Zone Game:

I wish I had some more pictures of this crazy game!  Pictures of everything were a bit hard to get with so much going on all at the same time.  Heidi did a great job in her carnival voice hackling the kids!  Gotta love her!  I owe her big time as I think she was a bit tired of picking up those darn cans time and time again!  Thanks Heidi!  

Check out the individual Tin Can Strike Zone post for details.

Bean Bag Toss Game:

I don't have any pictures!  Sorry!  Thanks Jen for manning the game for me.

Check out the individual Bean Bag Toss post for details.

Bounce House:

I enlisted Neighbor Brent as the the Bounce House Bouncer, as you can tell, he needed beer to calm his nerves!  The kids got a bit wild but he kept them in line!

That would be Jacklyn getting pummeled by a bunch of crazy kids!

And saving the best for last...

SWIFTY THE CLOWN!!!!!

Swifty the Clown is a fabulous balloon artist!  Check out his website.  He is worth every penny!  

I am adding a special post to display Swifty's creations for the day.  I don't have them all but I will highlight the ones I do have pictures of.  

Check out individual post Swifty the Clown for Swifty's creations!

After Swifty left it was time for Cake, well CUPCAKES at least!  Much easier than doing the cutting thing!

Heidi also borrowed a popcorn machine from her work!  It was great smelling the fresh popped popcorn!  I had bought the pre-popped popcorn to fill bags before she mentioned that she could bring one so I set those out as well!  Thanks again, Heidi-Ho!

Other related posts to check out:

Carnival Party Invitations

Carnival Party Name Tags

Carnival Party Cotton Candy Bags

Carnival Party Thank You/Goodie Bags

Marshmallow Shooters and Ammo Bags

Carnival Party Thank You Notes

Happy 6th Birthday to our beautiful baby boy, Steel!  We love you!