A Carnival of Party Games
Turn your yard into a "Midway" of Fun, Games and Prizes!
Take this party idea and adapt it for a fun Halloween pumpkin party for little ones. This party used a theme of "trolls", simply replace the trolls with pumpkins, add a pumpkin hunt and decorating table and have your prize booth filled with Halloween items and you are set for the fun. Have your carnival "barkers" dress in costumes. Your helpers could also be fellow parents! Make sure you plan a raindate! Use the instructions below and adapt for the Halloween season!
Here's how to create a carnival of birthday party games. This idea started about 18 years and has been through all 4 of our kids. It is so easy, simple and such fun for the kids, that it has been re-cycled by many of our friends and family for their kids. Best of all, it can held at your home and it is inexpensive. This collage of birthday party games needs some carnival "barkers" to run the games and prize booths. I recruited our older siblings and their friends "work the party". You could also ask a couple of your friends to help out.
Invitations ... Let the Birthday kid pick a theme
The theme could be circus, clowns, or anything they want. A carnival birthday party can adapt to the theme of their choosing. Back in the early nineties, Trolls were a hot item, so our daughter chose a "Troll Theme". For a Halloween party spin on this party idea.. the invitations are easy! Always schedule a rain date on the invite and keep the party to 90 minutes! With all the birthday party games you can accomodate a lot of kids..so let them invite away!
Food
We had dad grilling the hot dogs, had a station set up with juice boxes, bags of chips, crackers, fruit snacks..so they could stop over and eat whenever they were hungry! If you are using this idea as a Halloween Party, check out these fun Halloween Food Ideas. There are recipes for cookies, cakes and desserts that will make your Halloween party all the more festive!
Birthday Party Games
They key to this celebration atmosphere lays with the birthday party games. Set up stations all over the yard. Upon arrival, each guest receives a bag to collect their tickets after playing each game. The kids would decorate all these bags with stickers that were part of theme. All the carnival barkers had play dollar bills at their stations. Everyone got one just for trying and an additional bill if they were able to successfully achieve the target. For Halloween, give them a trick or treat bag and make "tickets" on your computer using Halloween clip art. Here are the ones we used over and over again!
Bowl Down the Troll
We lined up troll dolls as the pins and created a lane on our patio. The kids using a bocce ball, would attempt to Bowl Down the Troll. They got an additional dollar for every one they knocked down on one try.
Look at her form.. those Trolls are goners!
Crush the Can
We decorated soda cans with pictures of trolls and put some sand in each can. Using a tennis ball, the kids took 3 trys to crush the can and move it off the table.
With that wind-up those cans will all be down!
Tee Off the Troll
We put troll stickers all over a baseball tee and they took a swing at the wiffle ball off the tee. We spray painted lines on the yard with a point value depending on where their ball landed.
Basketball Troll Toss
We lined troll dolls at the foul line and they shot foul shots from behind the trolls. They tried to make the shot without stepping on or kicking over the troll dolls.
Look at those lines.. you'd think it was Disney World!
Target The Troll
We took a big box and my husband drew a troll face, which we then painted and cut out a big mouth. Their mission was to get the water balloon inside the "mouth" without breaking.
Water, Water everywhere!
Troll Search
We hid mini Trolls all over the yard..so as they went from station to station, they could also look for these... kind of like the Golden Ticket.. For each one they found, they got extra dollars.
Fishing for Trolls
We had a kiddie pool filled with water and floating with foam trolls.. From a distance they had a fishing net and had to scoop out a troll. They got an extra dollar for each troll they caught!
Prize Booth
A Carnival of Birthday Party games must have a prize booth! At the end of the game session, which lasted about 1 hour, the kids head over to the prize booth. We ordered all kinds of things from Oriental Trading company in bulk and had labeled them with the # of tickets needed. The kids then used the tickets in their bags and filled up their own goody bags!
Please wait, we have not finished stocking the prize booth yet!
Cake, Popsicles and Happy Birthday
As I always did, I baked mini-cupcakes instead of a big birthday cake. They are easy to handle, don't require forks and the kids actually eat them! They sell these mini-cupcake tins in many places including Target, Walmart, Williams Sonoma and Bed, Bath & Beyond. You can get the small cupcake holders there or at most any grocery store. We had popsicles to cool them off too. If you really wanted to take this party to another level, you could rent a cotton candy, popcorn or sno-cone machine. None of these are very expensive and would add to the festivities!
Sing Happy Birthday, open presents and the party is done!
It always amazed me that no matter how many times or with different groups of kids, these birthday party games were always a success. They could go for an hour playing these simple games, over and over again. Look at some of the lines in those pictures!
Use this party idea for an awesome Halloween party for wee ones
Don't you agree that this would make for a fun Halloween pumpkin party for little ones?
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