Candy Carnival

For my daughter's third birthday we decided to do a Candy Carnival. I had the idea of having a carnival and decided to add the candy theme after my niece's Candy Land birthday party. I saved most of the decorations from September to February in my Garage. I am surprised they lasted that long. Helen made most of the decorations for the Candy Land decorations and helped me repurpose them for my daughter's birthday. So my advice to you is to repurpose as much as you can.

Food and Drinks Signs

We made "lollipop" signs for the food and drink station. I gave the guests a popcorn tin filled with a brocure with all of the games and stations they could visit and fake money that they could use to buy food. At the food station (my kitchen) they could by hot dogs, hot links, chips, nachos, soda, popcorn and cotton candy.

Swedish Fish Toss

There is a gummy candy called Swedish fish. We used that theme for a couple of games. In honor of one of my favorite carnival games we had a Fish Toss. If you notice there is a giant lollipop behind the table. It is simply two paper plates glued together with a dowel in between the two plates. Then the plates are wrapped in tissue paper for color and then wrapped again in cellophane. Tie a ribbon around the cellophane to hold the cellophane in place.

Swedish Fishing Pond

This one was my daughter's favorite! Cover a bucket with a blue table cloth for the "pond". Cut out fish from card stock (Of course we did this with the Cricut) and place a paper clip on them. Then take a wooden dowel and wrap yarn around the tip and hot glue in place. At the end of the yarn tie a washer (which you can get at the local hardware store) to the end. Then hot glue a magnet (I got a fairly strong one at the hardware store) to the washer. I hot glued the magnet so that it would not get lost.
Safety Tip: Do not allow children to take the magnet off the string and play with it. If swallowed magnets can cause serious damage to the intestinal tract.
Gum ball Toss

The object of this game is to toss the "gum ball" (ping pong ball) into the plastic cups. We cut out small circles and placed them on the bottom of the cups. Then we covered a piece of foam board with wrapping paper. Note spray glue adhesive to the foam board and quickly place and smooth the wrapping paper on the foam board. This takes two people. Then glue the plastic cups to the covered foam board. Place the foam board with the cups on a small table.

Chocolate Pond Toss

Use a brown table cloth to cover a few boxes of various heights. Then place lilly pads a bowl and a flower inside the bowl. Kids are to toss a frog inside the bowl.

Candy Monster Toss
We used the monster toss game my husband found online. We just told the kids to feed the candy monsters as much candy as possible. The bean bags were the candy.

Sweet Prizes

I picked up inexpensive prizes months before the party.

Other Games
Gum drop bowling. Decorate a hallway with gum ball cutouts and create a bowling alley with a plastic bowling set.

The Cake
Helen made a cake and cupcakes. The cake has different candies as the edging and I bought small swirl lollipops and that was used as the topping for the cupcakes.