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Both of my girls have February birthdays, which is fun except for when it comes time to plan the birthday parties! We have a lot of joint parties, which they don’t seem to mind, thankfully. But it means I can also go a little bit “bigger” with the party since it’ll be more kids and only ONE party instead of two.

This year I decided to live my lifelong dream of throwing our very own CARNIVAL. Carnival parties can take a lot of planning but it was so fun and came together so well and the kids seemed to have a blast!

I rented out our school gym for the occasion and purchased most of the supplies from Party City, Amazon and Oriental Trading (with a heavy dose of Dollar Tree thrown in the mix).

Here is everything I bought to make this Carnival Birthday Party a success!

carnival party supplies, how to throw a carnival

(1) carnival prizes (2) prize wheel (3) squishy prizes (4) carnival tickets (5) ring toss game is no longer available, but you can probably find something similar! (6) striped table skirt (7) red table cloths (8) rubber duck matching game (9) balloon pump (10) popcorn balloons (11) striped treat bags (12) red napkins (13) red plates (14) balloon arch kit (15) primary colored balloons (16) balloon tape (17) circus tent balloons

A Carnival isn’t complete without booths!

The most important part of planning a Carnival is putting together all the games and hiring help! Here’s what we did:

Face Painting:

Ask friends for a recommendation of a face painter if you don’t know one, or do a quick search on Facebook or the web. I was able to book a lady after posting for recommendations on Facebook.

Balloon Artist:

We have a well-known balloon artist in our area that I was able to book for 2 hours, which was a big hit, as I knew it would be! Search and see if there is someone similar near you.

Ring Toss:

If you can’t find a ring toss game, you can DIY one easily. Just set up 6 cones (you can usually find them at Dollar Tree), and find large rings to throw on them. Cheap kids’ bangle bracelets would work. You can also check a party supply store (like Party City) to see what they have you could use.

Bowling:

We have a kids’ bowling set that we brought and set up for the kids to play! Easy enough!

Ball Toss:

Get 5 round baskets (check the dollar store!) and label them with point values (10, 20, 30, 40, 50).
Set the baskets up in a straight line, with the highest point value furthest away.
Using hacky sacks, foam balls or wiffle balls, have the player throw 3 balls, trying to get them into the baskets.
Add together the total score. Highest number of points wins.

Topple the Cups:

Set up 6 solo cups in a pyramid, and have kids throw ping pong balls to try to knock them down! It’s better if they’re on a table but we set them up on the floor and that worked okay too!

Cozy Coupe Racing:

Get 2 Cozy Coupe cars (borrow from friends, check Facebook marketplace, or resale shops)
Tape “lanes” on the floor using painter’s tape (or use cones!)
Players will race down the lane – first player to the finish line wins!

Match the Duck:

I bought this from Oriental Trading and borrowed a plastic pool from a friend, where I set them up and had kids take turns making matches.

Twister:

This one’s easy! Just set up the game and designate someone to be the wheel-spinner!

Dance Party:

Set up a bluetooth speaker with a kid-friendly playlist and let the kids have fun dancing! Bonus: you could add hula hoops and jump ropes for extra fun.

Fresh Popcorn and Cotton Candy:

Check your local party rental shop. I was able to rent commercial popcorn and cotton candy machines, with everything I needed to make the treats.

Prize Wheel:

I bought this from Oriental Trading but there are lots of DIY ideas on Pinterest if you do a search. I had buckets corresponding to each number with a different prize inside, mostly candy/suckers and little toys from Amazon and Party City. TIP: Kit Kats were the most-coveted prize, surprisingly!

To earn a spin of the Prize Wheel, each child at the party had to trade in 3 tickets. To earn a ticket, they had to play a game and they got a ticket whether or not they “won” the game. I didn’t want to make the prizes contingent on the kids “winning” so this was a way to make it fair and a little bit fun for everyone.

Bounce House:

Self-explanatory but ALWAYS a hit!

Balloon Arch:

I bought all the supplies to make the most beautiful balloon arch backdrop but sadly did not have enough time to execute it!

Free Carnival Party Downloads

I typed up instructions for each of the games, if you want to download them for yourself! Here’s an example but the instructions for each of the games I laid out above are included in the link below.

Click this link to download Carnival Game Instructions

And because I’m extra, I also made the girls matching Dumbo skirts from fabric I found at Hobby Lobby and a simple half circle skirt pattern.

I might be biased, but I think they’re the cutest ever.

For the cake, I just wanted something cute and graphic with primary colors, so I found an idea on Pinterest and my friend the cake maker executed it for me!