A Carnival Birthday Party with Oriental Trading

Every year since her first birthday, we have taken our daughter to Disney for her birthday. It usually coincides with the January Disney Marathon weekend which I love running in so we kill two birds with one stone!

For those first five years, she wasn’t in school so we didn’t have a bunch of friends and classmates for a party. Kindergarten came and she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of having to invite EVERYONE from her class, so Disney was still the easy choice.

Now it’s first grade… she loves school, she loves her teacher and mostly, she loves her classmates. She wanted to have a “real” birthday party this year. We looked at a few places and decided on one. However, when it was brought up again that she would have to invite her whole class, she backed away again.

We also had made other plans during the Christmas break that going to Disney wasn’t feasible this year (plus we thought she was going to have her birthday party). So when I told her we could have a party at the house with all her cousins, which is still about 30 people at the house, she got very excited.

We let her pick the theme and since this now got derailed and pushed back, we ended up doing a joint birthday for her and her younger sister. They have birthdays a month apart and seemed to make sense to do it at once now that it was just family anyways.

And of course, the theme that was chosen was “Rainbow Unicorn” and she wanted carnival games … so Rainbow Unicorn Carnival party it is!

I had no idea what to do with that theme. I mean, it seemed like such a random multi-themed party. So my first stop was looking at Oriental Trading because I knew they HAD to have something available!

I wanted to keep everyone outside (less cleaning!) but we did set up the food and party favor table inside. We just did a bunch of finger foods from Costco and called it a day. Made it easy!

We got the cakes from our local Publix. They screwed them up, again. I feel like every time we order from them, we end up with a different cake than we actually ordered. Luckily, Savanna was okay with it.

Outside we set up multiple tables for the games, crafts and tattoos (because you can’t have a carnival without tattoos).

As the kids played the carnival games, they won tickets. The tickets gave them the opportunity to pop balloons with prizes inside! I got small prizes that I would be able to squeeze into the balloons before blowing them up.

We set up the tattoo booth where Savanna gave tattoos out as we waited for everyone to arrive. And let me tell you these tattoos are excellent quality! We ordered through Etsy because Savanna wanted “different” tattoos then the ones you always see in the stores. I honestly didn’t expect anything great. They just had to look cool for an hour or so and I expected them to just rub off quickly like all those others do. Well, these stay on for a week through swimming in the pool and baths! So some parents may hate them but my kids loved them!

We also had a little craft table set up for the kids to make unicorn masks. And what carnival is complete without a Guessing Booth!

Savanna made all the signs for the games which included Ring Toss, Lucky Ducky, Ball Toss and Can Toss.

The party was scheduled from 10am-12pm. I know, early. But we were trying to accommodate all the cousin’s nap times. Some family and friends ended up staying until 9pm so these games were entertainment all day!

Afterwards, Savanna kept talking about how this was the best birthday party she ever had. So even though we didn’t spend a fortune or rent out a room at some play place, she will remember this party for a long time… and that makes me one happy mom!