Kick Off Carnival

Standing outside, the warm sun on my face, a soft breeze brushing my hair against my neck...

 I AM SO GLAD I CHOSE CARNIVAL INSTEAD OF OVERPRICED PERFORMER!!!

1. Bounce House ($175)

2. Face Painter VOLUNTEERS!

3. Snacks: Donated Hot Dogs ($10 for Napkins & Condiments)
 & Cotton Candy ($80)

4. Game One: Spell READ by dropping ping pong balls into these buckets ($8)
& small found in the back room prizes (free).

5. Game Two: Squirt the eye balls off the saw horse (found on Pinterest here & here)
($2 for squirt guns) & READ tattoos for shooting water guns ($5.25)

Each kid who came got 5 tickets, and each activity/snack "cost" 1 ticket. Last year for the magician we had 66 kids and 18 adults. This year for the carnival we had 55 kids and 16 adults. The kids number was a little low, but I bet if we do this every year the numbers will go up!

My favorite part was telling the kids that this was "FREE!" The grandma walking by telling her granddaughter that it was too expensive? I got to tell her, "it's free!" "But how much is the cotton candy?" ME: "FREE!!!!" They came to the carnival! One kid asked me, "so how much money did you make?"  Me: "It was FREE, how much money do YOU think I made?" followed up with my smirky little grin.

All of that fun for less than $300! It wasn't a ton of extra work, really. Clean up wasn't too bad either. Thank goodness for the dad who came to pick up his teen volunteer and helped us pick up that big pig of a bouncy house and put it into a truck!

Notes for next year?
1. Skip the hot dogs (worm dogs). They were a cute idea, but no one really wanted one, kids were more interested in the cotton candy!
2. Paint the board on the squirt gun game! My husband made that for me ten minutes before I left for work the day of the carnival (thanks hun)!
3. There were just enough events to keep kids here for a short time, but not too long!
4. Timing? Pre-registration (started 2 weeks before the carnival) confuses parents (and myself). Should we skip that next year?
5. I know that Kim is dreaming about sitting in a dunk tank next year!