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Jungle/Safari Party -1yr- Jungle Train

January 2011

Nicole in Thibodaux, La

Special Mention

My son's birthday is in Decemeber so I wanted to think of something that I could do inside because in South Louisiana you NEVER know what the weather will be like! So, we rented a local fire station and had it there-which was great-it had a full kitchen and huge open party space! I love planning parties so I wanted to make my little boys 1st birthday party really special! After thinking about for a while I decided to choose a Jungle/Safari party! 

Invites: I had a local friend that has a business in card making design his invitation(makemydayllc.com)-she's great! It was very colorful and whimsical! At the bottom of the invite was a jungle train-with PARTY animals in each cart! First cart a Monkey with presents loaded in, 2nd a giraffe holding a ballon, 3rd a zebra with a party hat, and last a lion with balloons! Each cart was a different animal print-it was precious! And then around it was palm trees! And then wording-Come party like an animal we'll have so much fun as we celebrate our little chunky monkey(his nickname) turning one!"  Party Time: Grant's Jungle(place) and ROAR to(rsvp).  They were adorable and we had so many compliments on them!

Decorations: Since we rented the building we could not hang anything on the walls so I had to be creative. I had a friend who had french doors that are normally used for weddings. We used those and took of the knobs so everything was flat! I then took rolls of table clothes and covered each door. The backdrop was farely large which was great! We then took Palmeto leaves that my father in law when cut out of the woods-which were very jungle-ish(lol) and put them all around the doors to make a border-it came out really cute! I had three different tables infront of the backdrop-the middle table being the cake table. We had few animal things from his nursery and I had one of those cork board tile paintings that has a giraffe and his name on it-so we hung that up in the middle of that-with a birthday banner! 

Then left side table was the "SWEET" table(which I will name those later)-I had taken one of the thick poster boards and decorated it with the them and labeled it-Grant's Sweet Shop. The right table was the candy buffet(which is a huge hit!)I had several different size candy jars filled with all kind of colorful candy-makes a cute show-and again I made another poster to match-that read Grant's Candy Factory. For center pieces I got cute colorful pots and stuck stryo foam at the bottom-covered them with fake grass. Hobby Lobby had cute wooded painted safari animals that I put on a stick and stuck them into the pot-everyone loved them! Of course I had balloons all over! I also had plants and trees everywhere! I had some borrowed some and bought some! I wanted JUNGLE feel-and it really helped bring it all together-and this also served another purpose that I will later talk about! Also my best friend embroiders. So she made the cutest shirt for his party wear! It was a big number one-with a monkey wearing a cute party hat and holding a balloon!

Activities: Well of coures there was the candy buffet! Not really an activity but I did this at my other little boys(mickey mouse) party and it was a huge hit-even with the adults-so this became and annual party MUST HAVE! Everyone is able to participate in this! I give each guess a party bag and let them fill up with whatever they wish! I had a craft section set up. I had bought some jungle craft kits from oriental trade! They came out cute and the kids enjoyed making them! I also purchased a jungle bean bag toss set-which they had fun with! And the BIG HIT was the SAFARI! As I mentioned earlier I had all of the plants and trees set up! In one particular area I had a bunch of trees set up to make a little trail! I had ordered stuffed jungle anmials from OT that were to be given as part of the favors! We hung all the animals in the trees/plants! I took a wagon and decorated it like a jungle ride! And I gave each kid a set of binoculars and they each took a turn riding thru the jungle on the safari-and at the end they got to choose which animal they wanted off the tree! They absolutley LOVED IT!!! (the party was over a month ago-and I had two mom's tell me their kids still hang on to there animals b/c they got them on the SAFARI-lol-too cute!)

Food: As far as the main meal we keep it very simple b/c we have learned we usually have so much food left over so we have Homeade chili Hot dogs Fritos and fruit and P&J sandwhich(for the kids). But where I do get a little crazy is the sweets! Back to the sweet table. I had order the CUTEST fondant cupcake toppers from Etsy(my addiction-lol) She made giraffes monekys  elephants and tigers! They were ADORABLE! We also had several other things Brownies Tea cookies chess squares rice krispies and few other things! Again-everyone said how much they loved everything! Cake: I had local cake designer make his cake-it was two tier! It had cute little jungle leaves around the edges of the cake and cute fondant shaped animals just hanging all over! IT was adorable!

Favors: Like I had said before I let each kid pick their own jungle buddy on the safari! But of course I had to have a "favor" for them to take home! I purchased the regular party bags with the arch handle. There were tan color with the rafea(?spelling?) handle! I then bought all of the different jungle print ribbons and tied once of each around the handle-and also a cute little crafty party tag(ordered from etsy) that said-I hope you had a WILD time-love grant. Inside I had different jungle things! Animal crackers bubbles stickers etc! 

OVERALL-this was a great party! Everyone had so much fun and said how precious it was! It's a LOT of hard work-but it's so much fun and I love doing it! Everyone can not wait for the next party! Everyone thanked me for having them! One of the little girls couldn't make one of our previous parties and the mom called me and said that her little girl said "SHE WILL NEVER MISS ANOTHER ONE OF OUR PARTIES NO MATTER WHAT" made me feel good!-lol! I'm already working on my other little boys party-he will be 3-and we are having a CARNIVAL! And I already have my ideas for Grant's 2 birthday-WINTER WONDERLAND/TOYSHOP!!! I can't wait!  I Well-I hope you enjoyed and get some ideas--I love this site-it helps me so much! "

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