Xander's Amazing Toy Story 4 Carnival Birthday

My son has been obsessed with Toy Story for as long as he can remember. I have pictures of him as a tiny toddler pushing Woody in a swing on the playground. Every year I think he is going to grow out of it and every year he asks for another Toy Story party. It is so sweet and precious and our entire family has grown to adore Toy Story. Of course we had to do something different than what we've done in the past and the new Toy Story 4 movie gave us the perfect opportunity to add a carnival themed twist to the traditional Toy Story party. We created a little carnival with games, prizes and tons of Toy Story details.

For the invitations I wanted it to look like a carnival ticket so I found these cute ones off of Etsy at Party Pixie Printables for just $8.

When people entered we wanted to give the illusion that they were entering a carnival so we crafted a tent at the entrance for people to walk through. Once they walked through they were transported to the outdoor carnival. The trickiest part was making the arch of the tent so that it would waterfall over the edges. We ended up using picture frame wire and fishing line to rig the ledge of the tent to give it the illusion of an actual carnival tent. I bought big rolls of red and white plastic tablecloth cover for the tent from Hobby Lobby. Of course I used my 40% off coupon to get a deal. The carnival sign was purchased from Oriental Trading and the Toy Story red carpet was from Party City. When they were inside the house we wanted it to look like Andy's room so we furnished the area with lots of big toys and tons of Toy Story items. My husband turned the fireplace into Andy's dresser with some foam board and paint. I love how it turned out.

Once outside we had carnival games and a bounce house which I hired some babysitters to man and help the kids with. I bought the big Toy Story backdrop from Amazon and plan to use it in my son's room afterwards. Once it got dark we flipped it around and it served as the movie screen of the Toy Story 4 movie. The kids cozied up on the chairs and got to enjoy the film. The ticket booth was a little booth I had made a long time ago, it started as a kissing booth for Valentine's pictures and has since been a lemonade stand and now a ticket booth. My husband made all the monkeys and the kids and I painted them to hang around the porch. He found the blue barrel for sale online and purchased it to turn into the base of the barrel of monkeys and our outdoor trash can. I loved the little flag pennants I found off Amazon, they were super affordable and there were a ton of them (we didn't even use them all). They gave it the perfect pizzaz and carnival flair I was looking for.

For the Carnival Games we did 10 stations that the kids could rotate through and we hired babysitters to assist. The stations were the bounce house, Bunny and Duckys Pond (duck matching game), Duke Kaboom's Darts, You've Got a Friend in Me Fishbowl Game, Flying Saucers, There's a Snake in My Boot, Bo Peeps Pin In a Bottle, Buzz's Bean Bag Toss, Bullseye Bonanza (Can Toss) and Create Forky craft. If I would've had more time I definitely would have put more balloons and cute decorations around the carnival stations. Unfortunately it was a super windy day and everything kept getting blown over so we gave up and decided to stick with practical.

For the food we wanted to keep it simple. We rented a hotdog machine from the people you provided us the bounce house (Kidz Fun All in One) and had pizza planet inside the house. I made little vegetable cups with ranch in the bottom, carrots, cucumber and celery. We also had fruit, chips and cotton candy.

The desert table served as our prize station as well. The kids had 10 carnival stations to complete and in turn they got to pick 10 carnival prizes from the table when they were ready. My kids helped me make these cute alien goody bags for their friends to enjoy.My amazing mother in love makes the most gorgeous and delicious baked goods. She had everyone drooling over her beautifully crafted cookies, pretzels and cake pops. Rather than get a cake this year I went the simple route and ordered cupcakes. I bought these cute little toys to put in them off of Amazon to dress them up a bit. My mother in law make the adorable forky decorations as well. For the prizes I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of treats and toys. I grabbed some vases there as well and filled them with all the goodies.

The present drop off station had a sign that read- "New Toys."

To wrap up the night we did cake and an epic dance party. If you haven't checked out You've Got a Friend in Me Remix you are missing out. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPoNpJ29bvE. You're so welcome. =) I bought a revolving bulb from Amazon and it just fit into our regular lamp. It was hilarious to watch all the great dance moves and the kids had a blast. Afterward, we put the Toy Story 4 movie on the projector outside and then opened presents.

All in all he said it was everything he could have ever WANTED! hey hee.