The game "Ball and Cups Bounce" uses action and planning to play. This would be one of those carnival games that would be great to play at a party too.

I’m so excited to share the POW WOW THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY I styled last month. This party is actually in my upcoming book and is one of the select parties you get to see before the book hits shelves this October!

St. Charles Avenue’s fifth annual Courts of Carnvial – the largest ever at more than double the size of last year – and reminds

Anneke and Michael's wedding in Lüneburg, Germany had a traditional ceremony, a second outdoor ceremony, and a carnvial-esque costume-themed reception. The bride wore a dress handmade by one of her best friends. The first ceremony was held in a medieval watertower, and afterwards the pair bicycled to the outdoor reception where the second ceremony took place.

Need fun party recipes, fall festival ideas, kids birthday party foods, circus party theme / carnival party food ideas or just want to recreate those fair foods that you love? Try these easy snack recipes for fried oreos, copycat fair lemonade, roasted corn on cob (grilled corn), kettle corn recipe, pickles corn dogs (Dilly Dog recipe) & MORE fun for favorite junk foods! #fairfoods #snackfood #kidsparty #partyfood #carnvial #circus #birthdayparty #foodbar

The last week of June I worked VBS at a local church and helped design crafts for school aged kids. The theme was Colossal Coaster World and was all things carnvial. There were lots of fun crafts for the kids to make and these two extras I found on Pinterest were among my favorites! These bracelets were a big hit among the 4th - 6th grade kids. They are inexpensive and simple to make with long balloons cut into 2" strips and strung through elastic to make a bracelet. You can see detailed directions at Michelle Paige's blog. I would love to have them as a party favor when Abby is older! The kids also made snow cones. I will not lie, these were my favorite and the worst craft of the week. I loved how they turned out and the kids wanted to make lots of them, but they were messy! I will totally make them again for a party- they wouldn't be messy if made by adults. Having 40 kids making them at once was a bit much! ;) They are made by painting cheap craft paint onto small styrofoam balls with a foam brush. You add iridescent glitter while the paint is still wet and then glue the paper base onto them. We did it all while attached to a skewer to minimize the mess! The template and detailed directions can be found at Creature Comforts blog. I simply added the VBS logo to the paper cone template before copying it for the kids. If you are going to have kids do these, I would recommend they do the painting and then bring an adult the painted ball on a stick. The adult can then do the glitter (over a bowl) and glue the cone onto the ball. We premade the cones before VBS and had just stapled them shut. We made about 150 snow cones over 4 days! They take a few hours to dry, so be prepared for that.

If you follow me on Instragram and Facebook then you already know what I was doing over the weekend. My mom came to visit me, and we took a trip with my aunt up to Kentucky to do some good old fashioned junking! My aunt had previously visited the small town of Glendale (just south of Elizabethtown) and loved it for it quaintness and antique shops. She's been itching to get us up there! And I'm so glad she did! We had an amazing time, saw some amazing things, and had great timing (it was also the Spring Festival so lot of extra unexpected shopping!). I wanted to show you around a bit in case you're ever in that area. And, of course, show you all of the fun thrifty finds that came home with me! And there might even be a ghost story in it for you, too. Our first stop? Well, we were actually trying to find a place with a public bathroom and ended up at True Kentucky which was a gem of a shop. A lot of handcrafted products from Kentucky artisans. I ended up buying some homemade muffin, hush puppy, and corncake mixes. Our 2nd stop was by far the most anticipated (the exterior looked very promising!) and where we spent most of our time. This is Bennie's Barn Antique Mall and it had 3 glorious floors to explore! The first two floors were definitely the highlight. Booths of vintage goodies were everywhere you looked. If you find yourself in the area and only have time to visit one place, make it this one! The prices were very reasonable (on most items) and, if we'd had a larger vehicle, I would have definitely brought home more items! The owners, Bonnie and Gerald, were super nice and helpful. After wandering through some of the booth of the Spring Festival, we made our way to Green Top Antiques & Collectibles. They had a lot of interesting items here, but more of a mix of vintage and modern in the booths. Definitely a place to check out though! By the time we arrived at these shops in the town square, one had closed down for the evening (left) but the shop to the right was still open. No antiques there, but a cute little boutique with clothes, jewelry, and hats galore. We ate dinner at The Whistle Stop, apparently famous for both their meatloaf and desserts. I ended up with neither. We shared a platter of green fried tomatoes (yum!) then I had the Reuben sandwich which was divine! I was too full for dessert. And besides, we still had more shopping to get to! We also visited Thru the Grapevine, which was full of shabby chic goodness and a lovely room full of trendy jewelry (think bubble necklaces!), scarves, and hats. I came home with a couple of new stylish straw hats I'm excited to wear this summer! We also stopped in at Where Dreams Come True which had a lot of great Americana decor and gifts. Ready for some vintage finds? Most of these were found at Bennie's Barn Antique Mall. How dreamy is that drawer unit? It was pricey, and I have no home for it, but I drooled over it nonetheless. I love the architecture on this chair. And the velvet upholstery was actually in really good shape! On the second floor of the Barn there was shelf after shelf of old jars. Mostly Ball jars, and fairly pricey, too. But they were old and would be worth the money if that was what you were looking for. There were also a lot of off-brand jars that were vintage and less pricey. How cool is this giant scale? I loved it! I was drooling over all of the yellow McCoy pots. I would have loved to have bought a couple but the prices were just too high for me. I really, really, wanted this vintage Pyrex bowl with the hot air balloons! It is so whimsical! But I think it was $30+. More than I was willing to spend on it. This time. If I ever go back and find it again I might just snatch it up! This little jar was so unique, but unfortunately you can't really tell it from the photo. There was an elephant on the front. I'm not familiar with the name of the company, but I thought it was something different that you don't see every day. Need an old oil can? I know where you can get a couple dozen. This ceramic strawberry serving piece just struck me as funny. I'm sure it suits someone's tastes, just not my own! I love this colorful vintage Pryrex grease jar! But I'm not sure I want to put my grease in a jar that costs $29. I'm sure I can find something much better to go in there! If we had brought a pickup truck, I'm pretty sure this outdoor furniture set would have come home with me. It needs a little love, but the potential is fantastic! The price was decent, too. More pretty vintage Pyrex with some old Archie glasses sitting in it. A couple of odd little lamps with fruit bases. Me and my new friend, Mr. Knight in Shining Armor! Lots of old windows. There were also a lot of doors that my mom and were drooling over. Again, we needed to have brought a larger vehicle! When we finally left Glendale I assumed we were heading back to Tennessee. Wrong! My aunt headed towards Franklin, KY because she wanted to show us this very unusual home from the civil war era called Octagon Hall. You can visit their website for a full history behind the structure but, suffice to say, it was built by a confederate sympathizer who hid soldiers during the war that were injured. Soldiers from both sides camped on the plantation property. A little girl in the home died there in a fire. Slaves were used there. Bundle all of that information up and apparently you have a haunted house on your hands. Which makes the end of our day in Kentucky super abnormal! Maybe... paranormal?? ;) It was dusk when we reached Octagon Hall (seriously!), and my aunt just wanted to show us around the outside of the home. We did not expect anyone to be there. But there were 3 cars there when we arrived. It turned out that a paranormal activity team was spending the night in the home to collect readings. What??? They were gracious enough to give us a tour of the outside of the home and tell us some history of the place. By the time we visited the cemeteries (there are 3: 1 for the family, 1 for two soldiers, and 1 for the slaves) it was getting quite dark out! We had a quick tour of the first floor of the home and the basement. We bowed out to visit the 2nd floor and attic. We figured these guys had work to do. I'm not one to believe in ghosts (though scary movies creep me out), but they did have some interesting photographs from previous sessions there with "odd" apparitions in them. As we headed home I told my mom that my husband would be certain to ask me why I was getting home so late. I told her to watch his face closely when I told him that we stopped by a haunted house before leaving KY and that a paranormal activity team was there looking for ghosts and they gave us a tour of the place. Sure enough, he was pretty skeptical! It does sound pretty unreal. Enough of the weird, let's move to what I bought while thrifting in Kentucky! Decidedly not vintage, but I fell in love with this animal superhero party set at a Tupperware booth at the Spring Festival. (I thought it was a carnvial themed until I looked it up on their website!) I knew my boys would love it as much as me. We love to have "picnics" with the items in their kitchen set at home. Sure enough, as soon as I brought it out we were serving "cake" and "juice" to each other for at least an hour! I found a lot more than I expected to in the antique stores. Honestly, I tend to be super frugal with my money so I often can't justify paying high prices for vintage items unless I really want them and know what I will do with them once I get them home. Luckily, the prices that day were fantastic and I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do with each item I purchased! All of the above, with the exception of the bundt pan, came from Bennie's Barn Antique Mall. The pan came from Green Top Antiques & Collectibles. I found this Atlas jar mixed in with all of those other jars on the shelves I showed you earlier. I absolutely positively LOVE the lid! The jar was $4 which I think was well worth it, even for just that awesome lid! I think details on the handles of the spoons and forks will look amazing dipped in bright colored paints. This set of 6 scalloped coasters has me thinking of making some kind of wall art with them. I just love those scallops! The yellow pot is going to be for succulents in the living room when (if!) I ever get the makeover done. Yellow is going to be one of my key colors in there! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with the metal drawer but I could not pass it up. I'm excited to figure out something to do with it! I'd love to hear any ideas you might have. The two-tier serving tray needs a little love (and maybe some paint on those black parts), but I think it has some fantastic potential! I don't know if this metal embroidery hook is really very old, but I love how rustic it look and will definitely be using it for some wall decor. The bundt pan has a crazy late 1800's date on it, but I don't know if that is true. There are no marking on the pan at all to represent a company or date made. It does, however, look and feel very old. I plan to use it as a planter outdoors. The little blue dish I plan to paint and use for holding jewelry on my dresser. As we left Glendale, I snapped this shot out of car window. We had such a great time together and were all pleased with our purchases. And ready to go back again with a bigger vehicle!! If you ever find yourself near Elizabethtown or Bowling Green, know that Glendale and its amazing antiques are not too far away. Linking up to Flamingo Toes, Skip to My Lou, Today's Creative Blog, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tidymom, 504 Main, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, My Repurposed Life, 30 Days, Tatertots & Jello, Positively Splendid, and other great parties found on my party page.