Carnival Party

[noname]

Last year, in order to celebrate his birthday, my uncle rented a nice house on the ocean in NC. We had such a great time there that we decided to do it again, only we all pay this time

Anyway, one of the things we did to make dinnertime a little more enjoyable and less of a chore was to have a "theme night" for each group of family. Well, long story short, this year, my mom, aunt and uncle want to pair with me and do a carnival night. Easy enough, I got more than enough clown crap to fill a small warehouse They all agreed to dress up (and let me outfit them, man they are in trouble).

Anyway, usually each theme also has a certain drink that is best associated with the theme, that can be made both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. My question...finally....is this. What drinks would you recommend for a night like this? I stumbled across something called a caramel appletini, though I was trying to think of other ones as well.

Any suggestions? Food, drink, game ideas...there are children involved, obviously, otherwise, it be really strange...fun...but strange.

thanks

[saphireSue]

food = I alway think of rainbow sherbert as a clowny desert

Games hula hoops - do two groups all ages, every one holds hands and you have to pass through the hoop and get it all around the circle with out letting go.

quick change 2 sets of clothes one for a woman and one for a man
ex woman - underwear, slip, panty hose

ex. man boxers, pants ties etc.

[ teenager and adults are funny to watch] 1 man is blindfold and handed the womans clothes and 1 woman is blindfolded and handed the man's clothes and they race to see who can get dressed first [over their real clothes of course]

[Chance Marmalade]

Here's a do it yourself list of carnival games I found.

BASEBALL THROW - Throw balls at targets. Create an interesting target backstop.

DOG CAGE GAME - Use a large, wire dog cage, a lock and 10 keys that look alike with only 1 that actually opens the lock. Fill the cage with stuffed animals. If the player picks the winning key they win their choice of prize. Be sure to mix up keys before next player.

FOOTBALL TOSS - A popular throwing target is a car tire hung from a frame using 2 ropes to keep it from twisting. Award prizes for accuracy.

FRISBEE TOSS - Make a target by cutting holes in a piece of plywood or a big cardboard box and decorate. The degree of difficulty will depend on how many Frisbees the player has to put in the hole, how far away the target is and the size of the hole.

HORSESHOES - Award prizes for ringer, leaners, close to the pin, etc. Improvise your own rules as space and equipment allows.

LUCKY DUCKY - Take eight rubber duckies and mark each one with a number from 1 - 8. Put them in a kiddy pool filled with water and let players try and find number one with a single try.

This company has photos of a bunch of carnie games you can order from them but you could easily adapt a number of them to stuff you have lying around the house.

On a side note we live in odd times. A search for Classic Carnival Games comes up with pages and pages of reviews for the Nintendo wii game "Carnival Games" which, if I had a wii would be a must buy!

[Sir Toony Van Dukes]

I think you need a frozen drink like a snow cone. And there needs to be popcorn.

Just think midway games. Throwing darts at balloons, tossing quarters on a saucer, duck ponds, sand art or face painting.

[Scruffy]

Try bobbing for apples in a bucket of gin......

[noname]

Originally Posted by Scruffy

Try bobbing for apples in a bucket of gin......

Now, that's not a bad idea

And, does anyone have any other drink ideas?

[Lolly Plop]

Lemonade either virgin or with alcohol. Where are you at Noname? I think I'm gonna crash your party too.

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

Ice Cream Cone Clown

[Pickles]

Definitely serve corn dogs to the kids (and to anybody else who wants them). And you can have a big bowl of Circus Peanut candy.

No name, I want to go to your family reunions. What a fun idea.

[pixcoco]

I was going to say lemonade also. You can make a frozen version in the blender. Very popular with or without rum. And I would not think beer was aout of the question.

For a more south of the border feel you can make a variouty of friut drinks. Melon and mango drinks made with plenty of sugar and served in large glass jars with ladels.