Birthday Carnival, in Calgary.

Do you ever wonder why you live where you do? Yesterday I was certainly not happy with this crazy Calgary weather that we have. As we were packing up to go decorate for Ethan's Birthday Carnival the kids were asking for the air conditioner to be on because it was Hot outside. We got the the pavilion to start decorating (which is aprox. 5 min from home), and not 10 minutes later it was pouring rain, and the kids were sent home to Grandmas to keep warm.

Last week we gave out the carnival tickets as invites. I LOVE how then turned out. I had the idea in my head, and just kept telling Jordan what I wanted it to look like, and he nailed it!

Braving the weather, all of the kids who were invited showed up, We did have one replacement child. Nixon fell asleep and missed all of the fun, but his older sister was happy to enjoy the party for him, and we were happy to have Liv there.

We went kind of vintage carnival, using lots of red and white. I made a banner that said Ethan's Birthday Carnivalwhich you can read soo well thanks to the horrendous wind (which was present for 1 1/2 hours of the 2 hour party - that's right it was beautiful as it ended as well!)

Each of the games had a sign
and we asked my family to come and help man the games and such. I can't thank them enough. Having them makes a party like this feasible. Stephen took care of ring toss, and a knock down the can game. Jordan did a squirt gun game where the kids were trying to knock golf balls off of tees, My future sister-in-law Amanda, and a friend of hers Marley took care of face painting, and my mom took care of the food making authentic funnel cakes.
we had a bouncy house that we borrowed - a huge thanks there as well, the kids loved the slide, and the popcorn machine was borrowed from my in laws.

We had all kinds of carnival food including popcorn, mini donuts, soft pretzels, and of course the funnel cakes. That is where I planned to stop with the food, but of course grandparents have to get the good stuff, so there was also dinosours, and ring pops.I made some popcorn cupcakes that turned out super cute, and I was very pleased with the presentation of them. Of course they were a hit with the kids, marshmallows, and cupcakes, what kid would enjoy that?
We had an 11 year old Magician Joel Lethaby come and entertain the kids, he was fantastic! The kids all sat on the picnic table, and at one point he had all of the kids in fits of giggles as he pretended that he didn't know that his rope went stiff when he wasn't looking. Then he made balloon animals for all of the kids.each of the kids (that wanted to.) had the opportunity to help him with his tricks.
then Ethan got to blow at a sparkler since the candles wouldn't stay lit, it was pretty funny watching him blow as hard as he could until the sparkler burnt out.
It took some convincing, but we were able to get him to open gifts, he was spoiled, but very happy with all of his loot.
it was about this time that the sun decided to come out and the kids got to run around and enjoy it a bit.I think that the kids were able to have some fun despite the weather, and my baby boy is now 3!

Each of the kids were getting prizes as they played the games, and that is what they took home as a treat bag.

Happy Birthday Ethan, I love you!