I’ve been planning a circus carnival theme party for years. I bought the party decorations years ago when my two oldest were younger because they wanted a circus party but then of course they changed their mind at the last minute. Apparently, I was a lot nicer then because I would not let them change their mind at the last minute, now. I asked Mateo if he wanted a circus party and he was all in when I started showing him pictures of what I was planning. I wanted to get this party in before my little man was too old for it.
My little man is not so little anymore and though I want to hold him a little longer and kiss his cheeks off, it’s been a joy to watch him grow into a little man so full of sillyness. He’s feisty but full of humor. He thinks he’s invincible but he’ll melt into my arms and kiss my nose in a second. My prayer for all my boys is that he becomes a man after God’s own heart always seeking Him even in the midst of the teen confusion and storms. I know he’s only five but we have to start laying that foundation now!
This circus party was so fun to plan! I made the cake the night before and decorated the morning of his party. It’s cold and rainy here so I decided it would be an indoor party but by the time his party rolled around it was beautiful and warm so we took all the decorations in and redecorated the outside 30 minutes before the party.
Circus Party for Mateo
The Dessert Table
I love working on my dessert table first. It helps set the mood and gives me a better idea on how much more festive our room needs to be. I made the backdrop from a striped fabric that I’ve managed to use at almost every party I’ve ever thrown.
We had cake, party favors with a clown nose cookie in the center of the clown face, popcorn and drinks with fun straws.
The kids loved the fun straws. I purchased the striped straws from the craft store and the clown nose cutouts from Hobby Lobby
I had planned to give everyone a fun animal bottle but we ended up having more guest so I just used a few as decor.
Of course, we had to have a photo booth. I love looking back at all of our fun photo booth party pictures. They set the mood and help us remember what was our party occasion. We just used some striped fabric for the backdrop and I bought the banner at Hobby Lobby.
Here in this country the big usual party entertainment is a clown even the party has nothing to do with a clown theme. So, I’ve decided early on that we would not do clowns, we would just have our own party game entertainment. But this year was the exception because you can’t have a circus party without a clown. We had our very own clown. My oldest happily volunteered to be a clown and my middle child volunteered to be a mime person but later changed his mind.
Here’s the birthday boy! We made the barbell from balloons and we added other fun props like clown tie, clown face and mustache.
Games and Activities
Our games were really simple as I planned them an hour before the party. Honestly, at this age the kids just want to run around and chase each other.
So I only had 4 activities: photo booth picture time, race to the clown activity, knock down the circus wooden blocks game, dress like a clown race and a ring of fire activity we never played. I also had a “Lions, Tigers and Bears game planned sort of like Duck Duck Goose but I forgot about it. Basically you play the same way as Duck… but you go around and say lions, tigers and bears and at “Oh my!” that person is “it”.
The kids were occupied the whole time with just these 4 activities and then of course there was a pinata and cake.
There was a time when I decided to buy their cake but after a couple of years I decided to going back to making their cake.
It was a simple but delicious cake. I made a lemon with raspberry filling cake and butter cream frosting.
He loves sprinkles so he was thrilled with sprinkles all around his cake. I made the circus theme topper and we were all set.
