Margaret's Let's Go to the Circus Party

We went far bigger than usual for Meg's fourth birthday party. She and I both had such fun brainstorming and executing all the details, and for her first "friends party," I'd call it a rousing success.

Welcome to the backyard Big Top!

Eat Up!

The treats table featured popcorn, peanuts, circus train animal crackers, and raspberry lemonade. Sadly, I couldn't find boxes of Cracker Jacks anywhere! Party hats, confetti poppers, and punch balloons were free for the taking.

I wanted the cupcakes to turn out better than most of my culinary ventures do, so I ordered some from the grocery store bakery. I ordered chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting piped on with a round tip and was handed these... and for double their estimated price! Not quite what I'd pictured, but they looked fine once we put them in festive liners, sprinkled on some candy-coated sprinkles, and popped on homemade pinwheels and colored-flame candles.

Let the Games Begin!

I added our wooden beanbag toss game with a pail of plastic balls at the last minute. The dads in attendance ended up giving it more attention than any of the children did.

Meg's Nana, Nan, and Auntie tied endless balloon animals and swords, and Nana painted everyone's faces.

After playing outside for an hour or so, we invited everyone inside for cupcakes and a magic show performed by Auntie. Naturally, I videoed the show and forgot to take a single photo.

Meggie was our afternoon's ringmaster, fittingly.

The first of thousands of balloon sculptures.

Rainbow Dash proved to be a popular choice for face painting.

Pinata loot: finger traps, paper yoyos, fortune telling fish, bubbles, stickers, pom pom balls, colored Band-Aids, and glitter glue pens.

Little brother was to be a strong man, with a mustache and chest hair painted on, but he managed to sleep through the entire party and only wake up in time to pick through the leftover snacks.

Someone had a great day!

And, oh, the mess afterward!