noah turns 4 - vintage carnival to celebrate

The 2nd biggest party of the year, for us, was Noah turning 4 on Saturday. I was inspired by so many creative party ideas posted online - with over-the-top tables, backdrops and favors...  the ideas are quite literally endless! Trying to squeeze in some creative planning and brainstorming between "it" all, may not have resulted in the picture-perfect tablescapes like I had imagined in my mind - but, the party was  - and in every essence.

There's something more nostalgic and special to me when things are homemade, re-purposed, and brought to life with the helping hands of family and friends whose every intention is to make it special for the birthday boy and the little people in our lives. It reminds me so much of my childhood - where parties were homegrown, there was always something "else" happening in the background, and everything simply went with the family flow...

Here's a snapshot of what we all pulled together for a vintage carnival party honoring our Noah, who turned the big 4!

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A banner sign that matched the party invitations, welcomed guests at the door...

Mom arrived early to help us set up our "olde time carnival" lunch, and before guests arrived, more than 100 balloons hit the ceiling throughout the house...

The food table:

My sweet flea-market find a few weeks ago of an old carousel made it to the center of the table - holding the condiments for the hot dogs. Other menu items included curly fries, nachos with queso, meatballs skewered with cherry tomatoes, chicken pesto wraps and fruit and watermelon trays.



The chicken pesto wraps {Barefoot Contessa recipe} is one of my favorites. These delicious wraps were held together with cute toothpicks donning sparkly fuzz balls. A last minute thought on how to decorate the food table came to me when I saw the underside of the cupcake liners, which read beautifully for the occasion:



Plastic baskets lined with paper, plates, queso {which had to be kept warm}, stood by on the side table - including a handful of clown noses!



On the other side of the food table, we made a self-serve drink station and served ice tea and lemonade. Mason jars {big and small} with daisy cut lids was my personal way of tipping off my hat to "olde time" - including red and white striped paper straws. {I love how they are biodegradable!}

The front yard hosted our carnival midway, which kicked off the party at noon. Here a bounce house with balls and bubbles entertained the kids, as well as games {basketball, ring toss, can toss...} earned the kids tickets to later redeem for prizes {Ava and Noah's favorite part}.

Spin-a-Prize - we made number "4" the winning number for 10 tickets...

Prizes were fun to gather. Remember ice-cream shooters? We also had slinkys, mini-beach balls, pin wheels, erasers and small toys.

After an hour, we filled up on carnival fare...





followed by a midway of confectionery treats...





Aaron made pink cotton candy while Aunt Roshana made sno cones for all the kids...

After food, games and treats, we sat down to take in a show! A "last-minute" idea {because I'm notorious for procrastinating}, Cindie, the Event Manager of DFW Kids Parties and Events, helped pull some strings and coordinate the perfect entertainer for our event, which made it extra special...



"Topper", the comedic-magician, had Noah and the kids brimming with excitement, attention and laughter. The kids gravitated closer and closer to him - wanting to participate in everything he pulled out of his suitcase and bags of tricks. He did an amazing job with this young {and older} group!











Some of the kids put on clown noses to pose... even Zoe our dog made it into the group picture!



After the show, we got ready to help the birthday boy blow out his candles... Mom made a home-made double layer vanilla and chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. Between cars and trains - Noah's 2 favorite things, I found a vintage animal train on Etsy - for the cake topper. The flag bunting {I literally sewed together that morning} was like the cake was having a party of its own - I couldn't have been more pleased with how it all turned out! Aaron also baked a dozen rainbow cupcakes for the kids...  which we served with strawberry milk!







































And then the most magical moment {at least for me} came, when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Noah, who fixed his eyes on me, too shy to look up - and at that moment, I exploded with so much joy - feeling so thankful and blessed with the gift of his life...











After wards, we headed outdoors again. Even though I flooded the day with lots of sweets, I couldn't break the birthday tradition of opening a pinata!

Children left with their goody-bags of prizes and candy, and a "thank you prize"... of a fish in a bag! Reminiscent to winning a goldfish at the carnival - these were actually bags of vegan extra clear glycerin soap with vinyl fishes inside made to look like they're swimming!

Carnival tins I had collected over the years, held more than 75 cake pops, candied in our vintage carnival colors, for our friends and family to take home and enjoy {red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting!} This was the first time I had ever made these sweet phenomenons {and perhaps the night before the party wasn't a good idea since it took 5 hours and 30 trials} but my sweet tooth {and party guests} would perhaps confess... they were worth it!

We had a lot of fun creating an "Olde Time Carnival" at home. What made it extra memorable for Aaron and I, was how involved Ava and Noah were throughout the planning process. From driving around town looking for red and white twine, to store-hopping, assembling invitations and even dipping cake pops at 1am, they each contributed in their own special way, making this very much a "carni" family celebration... where laughter, hard work and insanity... are inseparable.