Zebra Stripes

We have been very busy lately and I have not really had time to update. This week we are starting some new activities centered around the zoo. We did our first activity this morning. We talked about Zebras and the letter Z. Then little man painted some zebra stripes. 

I just taped stripes of painters tape on a black piece of cardstock. 

Then I taped the paper down to his tray. And put some white paint on and let him paint with his hands and paint brush.

 When I peeled off the tapes we had black and white stripes. 

Circus Party: Games

What is a circus without a few games? Since my son is only one I decided to create a few simple games for him and his friends. 

We already had this ball pit so we just turned it into a bounce house.

 

I put out some buckets and made a ball toss. When they got the balls in the bucket they got their own bouncy ball.

I made a fish pond game. This was really easy. I just made some fishing poles with a dowel rod, fishing line, and a magnet. Then I cut out some fish from construction paper. I put a paper clip on each of the fish. The kids could use the fishing poles to pick up the fish. When they picked up the fish they got their very own "goldfish".

We had to have our own photo booth. I just hung some wrapping paper up as the background. Put out some fun masks I got from Michael's and printed off line. It was so simple.

We even had our very own petting zoo!! : )

Lastly, we invited Bubbles the clown. Kids had to try to put the nose on Bubbles. If they got it close they got their own bubbles.

I set up a little prize area. Each child had their own bag with their name on it. I got the bags from Michael's.

Circus Party: Food

This was the easy part of the party. I just thought about what you would eat at a circus. We made hot dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn, lemonade, nachos, chips, and little fruit cups.

I just made small food labels for all the foods and we were good to go.

Circus Party: Decorations

There are so many ideas online for circus decorations. It was hard to choose my favorite. I made a circus tent in our dining room by pinning red and white rectangular tablecloths to the ceiling.

I made my own centerpieces out of a popcorn bucket. I also put a pot of peanuts and circus peanuts on each table.

I draped ribbon across the windows and attached some pictures across for the guests to enjoy.

I draped a banner across the living room to add some color.

I made my own ticket booth out of a cardboard box. I first painted the box white. Then I put the red stripes on by using red duct tape.

I made a welcome sign by using a Cricut machine.

Lastly, guests were greeted at the door with this handmade wreath.

Circus Pary: Cupcakes

Using the book What's Up Cupcake? I made circus animal cupcakes for all the guests to eat.

Circus Party: Sweets

Around the cake we had some other sweets. They included licorice, cherry slices, Smarties, cotton candy, gumballs, chocolate covered pretzels, and iced animal crackers. I also made Stongman Dumbells. This was a fun area for everyone to pick from.

Circus Party: The Cake

This was the very first time that I have used fondant. After watching many You Tube videos and talking to a lot of people I worked up the courage to actually do it. I made Wilton's Marshmallow fondant. I then colored the fondant with gel coloring. I used a large cupcake mold for the cake which was Funfetti.

 I then covered the cake with buttercream frosting. Then I rolled out the white fondant and covered the bottom and the top of the cake.

Then I rolled out the red fondant and cut it into strips and triangles for the base and top.

Then I rolled out the blue fondant and made the curtain details.

I also made an elephant and lion out of fondant. I followed some directions online for both of these animals.

It was a lot of work but I was very happy with the results. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  Here is little man digging in.