20734

Jungle Party -2yr- Photo Card Invite

December 2009

Nandita in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Runner Up

What is a two year old most fascinated with? ANIMALS What better than a Jungle theme for your child's 2nd birthday.  

Birthday card- For a toddler's birthday, having the child's photo on the card makes a world of a difference. We had a snap with Dhriti holding a pole (like one of the pole dancers); we changed the pole to a tree.. The card was designed from a mix of different design and text options. The tree, lion, Dhriti and Monkey were printed separately and stuck on the card with double-tape to give a 3-D effect. We bought Animal shaped assorted chocolates wrapped each chocolate in a transparent wrapping paper and tied with ribbon. While distributing the Cards we gave 3 chocolates with each card!! 

The decoration consisted of the following: Two Happy Birthday Dhriti banners with each alphabet containing an animal within it. The background included a host of animals with a hanging python for special effects. One was placed at the entrance and the other behind the cake table..

Entrance door banner- The entrance was a rectangular print of an assortment of animals including a lion, giraffe, tiger, deer, birds and the python. On the Door we stuck prints of a monkey on a tree and a lion..The ceiling and walls of the room were decorated with orange, green and yellow balloons and colored streamers. Prints of animals including Gandhiji's 3 monkeys, an elephant clown, a growling chimp, deer, monkeys, lion, tiger were stuck on the walls of the room. Footprints of animals and birds were printed on sticker sheets and stuck to the floor. They started at the entrance and all the footprints were towards the cake table! 

Cake table- The Happy Birthday Dhriti banner was hung behind the cake table. Two inflatable Monkeys were hung on either side of the banner. The table cloth was a print of leaves on Flex. Dhriti's favorite soft toys- an Elephant and a Leopard were made to sit on the table till the cake was brought in.A crocodile and elephant shaped balloon were also placed on the table. A lot of balloons and inflatable animals (Inflatable Zoo Animal Assortment from Oriental Trading) including Zebra, Elephant, Giraffe, Lion (from Oriental Trading) were displayed in front of the table.  

Welcome table- The welcome table was decorated with the caps (Child's Animal Bucket Hats & Zoo Animal Sun Visors from Oriental Trading) on one side and the personalized badges (personally designed) & Animal tattoos (Rainforest Friends Tattoos from Oriental Trading) on the other side. We bought regular badges from a toys shop and created a sticker of animals with each child's name written on it. These were then printed on sticker sheets and stuck to the badges. Each child was given a badge of his/her name when they came to the party. A tray with animal shaped gummies including Crocodile, Scorpion, Snake shaped gummies was displayed in the center of the table and balloons stuck on the table. The backdrop of the table was a craft piece for children with a jungle theme. 

Favor Bags table- Personalized hand-made paper bags (Gandhi Ashram) were displayed alphabetically with Dhriti's Favorite Fischer Price Animal Toy Train in the center and balloons stuck on the table.  

Birthday dress and accessories- The Mowgli dress was a combination of a Little Kangaroos Red Bikini top and a My Little Panda Brown velvet skirt. We bought round and oval shaped wooden beads and painted them in bright Red, Orange, yellow and Green colors by first tying them to a string and then painting each one. We used an elastic string for the waist and strung the beads around it For the hanging beads we used wool and tied them to the waistband; each hanging of a different height No symmetry was used for the hanging beads either in terms of length or color of beads used The last bead in each string was an oval one.. The waistband was then stitched to the skirt at the 4 corners so it wouldn't come off during the party. A similar exercise was done for the Bikini Top as well.. We used a beaded tiara and anklet for accessories We didn't do anything to her hair to give it the ruffled look. She wore orange Crocs for footwear. Just before the cake cutting we changed her into a Red and White party frock (Little Kangaroos) with matching anklet, bangles, a fountain pony with red and silver hair clips. Her sandles were white. 

Games- The party had 15 kids ages 1-8 years; so the games had to be decided accordingly. Balloon Popper- we printed an assortment of animals on a sheet of flex and mounted it on wood. We filled balloons with water and each child had 5 trials to hit 2 pre-defined animals on the frame. The kids had fun splashing water all over the garden.. 

Basket Animals- Each child was given 5 chances to basket rubber wild animals in a brown basket which we decorated with plastic creepers. Put the spots on the giraffe- We printed a giraffe on Flex and mounted it on wood. The toddlers were given a packet of Bindis each and they were asked to make spots on the Giraffe with these bindis.  

Photo banner- We created a photo banner with a Lion's open mouth. Children (and adults) went behind the banner with Dhriti and we got snaps clicked! This was a huge hit at the party! 

Cake- The cake was a 4 kg two tiered Swiss Chocolate cake with coconut palms on the top and animals for decoration. We wanted to continue with the chocolate icing since it gives the cake a better taste. The candle was an animal print candle (Jungle Buddies 1st Birthday Candle, Oriental Trading).  

Menu- A major task was to add Jungle related names to each menu.

So we had:   Mocktail: Mojito mint-Snake Bite Thin crust pizza Cheesy web pizza  I cottage cheese hakka style  Szechwan forest paneer treat  Coleslaw sandwich and French fries: Mowgli's delight Sev puri Wild Snails Grilled falafels with hummus and tahini  Kangaroo pocket falafel Live -Mongolian Count ChinesAlligator Me Live pasta counter  Jungle Pasta Paradise  Live Chana Kulcha counter Safari chana hippouri  Dum handi Birya Lion Handi Birya lebi  Spider Web  Crunchy munchy with caramel crunch ice cream Super Safari trail mix sundae 

Favor bags- Bags- Orange for boys and Purple for girls paper bags from Gandhi Ashram.  On one side we stuck Animal font ABC which was printed on sticker sheet and the other side was an assortment of animals with a caption- We Partied with the Animals!

We printed Thank You cards saying- All the Jungle Animals want to join Dhriti in saying; Thanks for coming to my party! These were inserted in plastic folders and tied to the Favor bag with ribbon Thanks Malu for all the effort and patience  Items for the Favor bags included: Jungle Animal Finger Puppets (Oriental Trading) Zoo Animal Paratroopers (Oriental Trading)  Neon Monkey Key Chains (Oriental Trading) Zoo Animal-Shaped Notepads With Wiggle Eyes (Oriental Trading Wild Animals books (Navneet) Animal Color Books (Navneet) Learning Animals with stickers books (Navneet) Giraffe print sunglasses (Toy Shop, Gulmohar Mall) Animal print Notebooks (Navneet)  Wish I could attach some snaps with this!

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