The party favor bags could include a small bag of Circus Peanuts, animal crackers, foam clown nose, plastic toy tigers and elephants, deflated balloons (for older children only), and circus theme stickers.

A cute idea for the party would be to have the guests have tickets for each of the games they would play. Be sure to have tons of balloons!!!

You can usually find, for a fairly inexpensive price, those popcorn containers that look like movie popcorn bags and put goodies in those.

If you want to do the face painting yourself - you can buy foam shapes at Michael’s crafts and dip them in face paint. Then tattoo the image on the child’s face - you’ll get a crisp outline of the shape which you’ll be able to fill in with small brushes and face paint.

Don’t forget to order our themed Circus Clown Photo Birthday Invitation for your party as well!

1. Sounds like BBQ time to me - you can go as simple as hot dogs and burgers or make a more elaborate menu of marinated chicken, ribs, etc. depending upon your budget. You can save even more by shopping in bulk.
2. Build your own hot dog bar! Kids like plain dogs, melted cheese, onions, grilled peppers, etc. Have chili for the adults & some burgers (also veggie).
3. Grilled Hawaiian chicken. Pre-cook the chicken breasts, then throw them on the grill in pre-made foil packs of teriyaki, pineapple and chicken.
4. A bag of chicken strips can make some kid-happy chicken fingers as well!
5. Jello jigglers in matching party colors - cut them out with themed cookie cutters for a festive touch.
6. Watermelon slices (for outside parties only, make sure to get the seedless variety for younger children).

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• Small bottles of bubbles
• Plastic clappers (when you shake them, they clap their hands, available at party stores).
• Fun sippy or straw cups (shaped or designed to match your theme if possible) - they are usually inexpensive & quite useful!
• Wood magnets to match the theme (one mother used ducky shaped ones, painted them yellow and then wrote her daughter’s name on them)
• Themed stickers, of course.
• Single serving boxes of Cheerios.
• Personalized sugar cookie pops - bake your sugar cookies with a popsicle stick, frost it, then write a name on it with these edible markers. Wrap it in some cellophane. If you don’t have all the names, you could just put a design on it like a flower or sprinkles.
• Whatever you decide to use, be sure to give the favors to the parents so that they can make the final decision on what to give to their child!

1. Garden salad
2. Order pizza and have it delivered pool-side. Have it delivered for the time you would like everyone to eat. It will be a hit and easy for you.
3. Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (if there is no allergy concerns, of course).
4. Fruit kabobs
5. Goldfish crackers
6. Chips
7. Trail mix of some kind
8. Dried fruit (raisins, bananas, apple chips, pineapple, mango, etc) - SuperTarget has many varieties.
9. Animal crackers
10. Ritz bits sandwiches with cheese or peanut butter filling.
11. Cold pasta salad (kept properly chilled, of course).
12. Fruit salad (also chilled).
13. Veggie tray (be sure to keep any dips chilled, of course).

Be sure to also check out all of our photo birthday invitations for your party…

Links to all of our Luau Food Recipes:

Fruity Pineapple Boats with Creamy Lemon Dip
Hawaiian Ambrosia
Punch for Kids
How to make a Watermelon Basket

Side dish ideas:

• Grill sweet corn in the husks and make a flavored butter using garlic, basil or chile.
• Rice & pineapple casserole
• Baked beans
• Green salad
• Chips & pretzels
• Skewered hot dogs or brats with chunks of fresh pineapple, green pepper & red onion (for older children or adults only, remove the skewers before serving to younger children, of course).

Be sure to also see our favors for pool parties for related ideas & we have several luau themed birthday invitations available as well.

• Handprint projects! Get out the paints and have the kids do hand (or foot prints) on a project page. You can also buy aprons from the craft store and have the kids hand print their own as a party favor.
• For a sure fire mess - SILLY STRING!
• Take a huge roll of paper and create a finger painting mural.
• Put the roll of paper on the ground - now it’s a foot painting mural!
• If you cut up the mural into squares, you can include it in the envelope with the photo thank you cards.
• Tie-dye t-shirts.
• Finger paint t-shirts.
• Then add glitter…

Also be sure to check out part 1 of the messy party ideas - Whipped Cream Plates - and part 2 - Homemade Slime.

Homemade Slime:

1. Mix together 3/4 cup warm water, 1 cup glue and several drops of green food coloring in the first bowl.

2. In the second bowl, mix together 4 teaspoons borax and 1 1/3 cups warm water.

3. Pour the contents of the first bowl into the second, but don’t stir. Let it sit for 1 minute, then lift the now-congealed slime out of the bowl.

4. Divide slime so that each child has a piece to play with. The glue in slime can make it stick to certain fabrics. To minimize accidents, give each little monster a zip-top bag to store it in.

SAFETY NOTE: Since borax is toxic in large doses, be sure to keep the slime away from kids younger than age three.

Whipped Cream Plates (you may also use regular shaving cream without menthol for older children):

Put one plate per person on the ground. Then place several M&M’s on each plate and put whipped cream on top of the M&M’s. Everyone must get down on their hands and knees, putting their arms behind their backs. On the count of three, everyone puts their faces in the whipped cream and has to eat as many M&M’s as they can. Whoever eats all of their M&M’s first is the winner.

For younger children, have them use their hands to sift through the whipped cream to find the M&Ms. If you are worried about food allergies - you can hide matchbox cars in shaving cream for the same effect. For a boy’s party, get a bunch of small dump trucks, loaders, dozers, etc. - pour a mound of shaving cream on the table to create a “construction site”. You can also use dirt or sand if you are outside, of course.