My oldest son is turning 5 on Saturday! We are planning a carnival/circus themed party that we will be having at Electric Castle’s Wunderland Cinema & Nickel Games. Choosing to have the party here turned out to be a real bargain! Children 5 years and under receive free admission and for adults admission will be $1.75 each. All the games take nickels and we will be providing $2 for each child that attends. Comparing this to the bouncy facilities that cost about $8-14 per person for two hours without add-ons like treat bags (that are filled with non-theme related junk).

The cake, which we are purchasing from Safeway, will be topped by Liz Marek of Artisan Cake Company. Earlier this year I participated in a giveaway on Artisan Cake Company’s FaceBook page and won a free custom cake topper no larger that 6 inches tall and 6 inches across. My son had no problem deciding on Marty, from Madagascar 3, doing the Afro Circus song and dance! It was a little difficult for me to find a suitable picture to send over the Liz.  We cannot wait to receive our delivery of Marty!

Well intended as I always am, I waited too late to really plan out fancy invitations. Instead, I used what I had on hand and some things I lucked out finding at the Dollar Tree.  The card stock I used is Recollections Primary Cardstock Paper 50 sheets for $2.00 purchased at Micheal’s. The raffle tickets I picked up at the Dollar Tree.

For the envelopes and treat bags I found popcorn bags at the Dollar Tree. After using Publisher to quickly put together the invitations, cutting, folding and gluing the tickets on, I opened up ten of the popcorn bags to make twenty basic envelopes. The popcorn glued to the outside of the bags was found by searching google for pictures of popcorn cutouts. I used paint and word to fill an entire page with popcorn. The coloring of the butter was done by my son and myself. For the invitations already given out I used the popcorn for the recipients name, each letter in the name had its own kernel.

Of course, now I hop on amazon to complete the theme. I will list out what is from amazon.com now.

• 1 Dozen Clown Noses $5.29, these are individually wrapped and for small noses
• 100 Glow Bracelets $9.75, we will put more than one in each bag, but this is still a lot.
• 2 Red & White Striped Table Skirts $8.35 each, just a skirt get the cloth at the Dollar Tree
• 1 Dozen Circus Carnival Rubber Ducky’s $6.67,not full size and perfect for treat bags
• 144 Balloons $11.16, Let’s just say I’m set on balloons for some time!
• 1 Dozen LED Mini Party Lights $9.15, these will be put in the balloons

We purchased a disposable helium tank at Micheal’s with a 40% off coupon was $19.79. And the banner flags are from the Dollar Tree. The Animal Crackers were not the best deal, I paid $1.25 per box at Safeway and went ahead and purchased 20 boxes!!

There is more to come! Stay tuned for the party! 🙂