I love to plan parties, weddings, showers, all kinds of events. I always make my own decorations, invites and all the little things for whatever the occasion calls for. I planned a Back-to-School carnival for my daughter (who is 8) and her friends. I planned and made all the games and bought pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, glue, crayons, just some of the little things that the kids might need for school and gave them away as prizes at the booths. There was even a little candy thrown in for good measure.
I bought tubs of cotton candy from Sam.s and bought sandwich bags from the dollar store and designed my own cotton candy bag. I also bought brown lunch bags from the dollar store and used prepackaged bags of popcorn to make our own bags of popcorn, carnival style.
The first picture below is of the invitations that I made. I wanted them to look like backstage passes, kind of VIP. It even says on the invite that you must call the Carnie Hotline to activate your VIP status. The adults loved the invites and they all kept at least one as a souvineer after the carnival.
This next picture is of the coupon booklet that was in the envelope with the invite. I gave this to the kids because I wanted them to have a real feel of being at a carnival. When the Rodeo/Carnival comes to town in Houston, I always buy a coupon/ticket booklet for my daughter and myself. I wanted to do the same thing here. This booklet has all the coupons they would need to get their tickets (from the homemade ticket booth), their food and treats. There was even a coupon for the kids to retry their favorite game! The extras that I had for the "extra kids (i.e. the kids that you don't expect because someone else brought them)", were also taken home by the parents as souvineers.
What I did was rented a moonwalk, the most expensive thing I purchased, and allowed the kids to play in that until most of the guests arrived. They didn't seem to mind, as it wasn't a long wait. Once all the kids were there, I had them line up in front of the ticket booth to get their tickets.
They had to tear out the first ticket in their coupon booklet and hand it to the ticket booth operator to receive their tickets. Then, they were off to the different areas to play the games. I had games for all ages and I was pleased to learn that everyone got a chance to play all the games several times and no one was left out, couldn't play or didn't know how to play the game. There was one game, though, that was the most popular, not only with the kids, but with the adults, tool. It was called "At the Races". What I did was spraypainted across the grass a grid of blocks that was 6 columns across and 10 rows down. I took a small square box, about 8inches all around, and drew dots on it to make a die (dice). There were two versions of this game: one where if there were less than six players, they each rolled the die and moved the number of squares that was shown, OR, the other where there were six players and the booth runner rolled the die and whichever player's number came up, they moved up two spaces. This was a big hit because the adults all thought they could beat the other. There was even one parent who, everytime he played, would buy (with tickets) 2 lanes to play on, trying to guarantee himself a win. Surprisingly, it never happened. But yes, eventually I had to give the adults tickets to play the games. Even some of the kids took over the booths while the adults played. All in all, EVERYONE had a blast and are already talking about the one for next year, that I hadn't even thought about yet. I've talked to some of other parents and we've all agreed to make this a yearly thing now. Of course, I don't mind. I love doing this kind of stuff for my family and friends. The hard part now if topping myself with my next event.
Hmm? What do YOU think about...