Roll Up!! Roll Up!!! The Circus is in town!!!

Adele's 8th birthday!!! She had initially decided on a theme of 'come as your favourite foods!' Oh my!! lol. I soon suggested that maybe an easier theme would be good. So she came up with clowns! So we brought the circus to town!

As usual there was lots of planning, excitment and items to be organised, so we all pitched in.

There was colouring in clowns, making toss a ball, creating a clown for pin the nose, making a cake, food, decorations, dress ups and lots of laughter!!!

There is no photographic evidence of my first attempt at painting a clown face!!! It was scary!! A scary clown!! We quickly hoped on-line to discover a much nicer looking clown!! And I think we found one :)

For this clown party we kept the food simple and focused on games/activities. We firstly gave each of the girls a party hat, some double sided sticky tape, some pom-poms, gel beads and streamers to create their own clown hat. The girls seemed to enjoy this as they all huddled togther and created some beautiful creations.

During the morning Adele, Avril and Josef had decorated two plastic bowls to create the game Toss-a-ball. We stuck the bowls bottom to bottom with double sided tape, added elastic so it could be worn like a hat and then took aim! The point of the game is to try to get your ball of socks or soft ball into the bowl.

We also supplied an area for silly photos. The girls had a washing basket full of dress-ups to try on. They all had a laugh creating new and wonderful characters.

One of the best games we played, was the one I thought would be least enjoyed! Tightrope walking!!! My husband supplied a plank of wood and I gathered an umbrella and a book. The girls thought they were very clever walking across the plank with ease holding the umbrella!! But little did they know it was going to get harder and harder!!

Next challenge...they had to balance a book on their heads whilst walking across the plank! Now this proved much harder but we still had some very skilled balancers in the group. We decided that some must be born with flat heads and others are more rounded lol :).

Then even trickier...balancing a book on their heads whilst holding onto the umbrella and walking across the plank!! Now I gave them the chance of dropping just once! And they could make it through to the next round...and they all made it! I was worried how do I make it trickier!

So next round...no drops and we still only got 2 out of the 8 out!! So this called for desperate measures - balancing the book on their nose whilst carrying the umbrella!! I had them this time! It now became a contest to see who made it the furthest along the plank! Not who made it!! So we had a winner!! Well done Gemma :)

Pin the nose on the clown was next. I am amazed at how this classic game is still a party favourite! The girls were thrilled to be playing it. So we blindfolded them, spun them twice and set them unsteadily towards the clown! Even Josef had a turn at this one! And loved it :)

Then as they dressed up and played I headed in to prepare circus mini hotdogs and collect the clown cupcakes. The food went down really well.

I managed to pick up some cardboard popcorn holders to display the food in (trying to be more circusey!). We kept it simple with potato chips, clown cupcakes, watermelon, mini hotdogs and sauce, fairy bread and lollies. The girls were happy and we weren't left with many left overs.

Then after a play we played a variation on 'Blind mans bluff'. Adele decided it should be called 'Clowns nose':). So instead of calling out blind mans....BLUFF!!! We called out Clown's...NOSE!! Now I hadn't realised I had been playing it wrong all of these years. I thought you kept moving to try to avoid being caught, but no, you freeze! The kids really enjoyed playing this.

Then it was time for water bomb catch!!! Luckily the early showers had left and we had been blessed with a beautiful day (for getting wet!! :) ). The kids found this game hilarious as they missed their balloons and they popped right on them. It soon became an all out war on everyone!! But heaps of fun.

Cake time...cake time....now I heaps of trouble this morning with this cake! I had never iced a cake in royal icing and wasn't sure how to work it!! But after lots of trial and error, I worked it out! Adele liked it...everyone else liked it...but I wanted to have done a better job! But on second thought it was quite good :) I just had not enjoyed the process as much as normal because of all the problems! But we still had a clown cake :).

Now I love party poppers and had organised that as we cheered Adele, we would pop party poppers over her head :) So we did!! And she blew out her candles and then we all tucked into cake...cake, cake wonderful cake!!

Adele received many wonderful presents today. She received some lovely note paper and 'her' special pen as she calls it. She received two lovely string puppets - a poodle and donkey. She received some lovely homemade jewellery, a hair clip and some bath soap. She received some polly pockets and some lovely singlets that a mum had added some pretty trimming. She was a very lucky and thankful girl.

Then it was home time... we handed out party bags...we made lots of noise with the party blowers...and then we said thankyou and goodbye. And then we crashed!

Josef was so pooped that he drifted off to sleep on mummy and finally rested on the couch.

We had a wonderful day and are so thankful for the wonderful girls who helped us celebrate Adeles 8th birthday.