Ive also done backyard carnivals for this age group and they have been a blast! The one thing you will need is help though, enlist parents to stay and man stations, it's a great way for them to meet the other parents and kids if they don't know each other already.
Games we've done:
~ Ring toss - 1 liter soda bottles filled with water, and diving rings
~ Can Toss - soup cans stacked and foam/rubber balls
~ Penny Pitch - polka dot tablecloth layed out, toss pennies trying to get in the circles)
~ Pop for prizes - we pre stuffed balloons with prize tickets and notes for specific larger prizes and filled up trash bags. We dumped all of them out at the same time and the kids had to sit on them to pop and get tickets to redeem.
~ Sand Art area or Sandy Candy
~ Bling Booth - someone sat there and applied temp tattoos and/or fingernail polish on the kids
~ Obstacle course - kids race through hula hoops, around obstacles etc and run through a toilet paper finish line at the end (we gave every finisher a gold medal)
You get the idea...
We didn't have goodie bags, instead the kids earned tickets at each game/event and towards the end we opened a prize table where they could come redeem their tickets towards their goodies to take home.
You need manpower to pull it off, but it's always is a great time!
