Jungle Animal -6yr- Safari Hats & Binoculars

Scotts  Jungle Animal 6th Birthday Party  Our grandson talked about a jungle animal birthday party for a year.  So I started planning it 4 months before his birthday.  I bought a gorilla costume to wear for the party.  I put a pink bow and grass skirt to tone down the mean face.  She was just beautiful and the children loved ôGracie the Gorillaö! We invited 11 of his family and friends. 

DECORATIONS: I made jungle trees out of the long, really hard rolls that come in commercial carpet.  The carpet store gave them to me and even cut them into 5 and 6 foot lengths for me.  I put them in old gallon buckets and secured them with a small amount of plaster, to keep them upright.  This worked wonderful.  I painted the trunks brown and put Spanish moss to cover the  top of the plaster.  I made leaves out of green paper I bought at a teacher's supply. The paper comes in long rolls so I was able to get lots of leaves out of 15 of paper.  I had helium oversized zoo balloons.  A monkey, elephant, zebra and lion.  They were awesome. Tied those around the living room. The big, 5 monkey from OTC was at the entrance greeting everyone.  The children loved it, used it as a punching bag after the party was over.  Our grandson and I made signs for yard decoration. 

They said:  Monkey hangout, Beware of the Lions, Hippopotamus Crossing, Zebra Stampede, Giraffes Eating, Jungle Ahead, Alligator Crossing and Watch out for the Tigers and Scotts Party. These turned out really cute, I let him decorate them with markers and stickers.  He drew the animals to match the sign and I even let him print the animal names on  some of the signs.  This was a fun project getting ready for the party and he had a part in the decorations.  I blew up about 100 helium quality multi-colored balloons and tied streamers on them. (This takes about 45-55 minutes.)  The children had to go through all of the streamers to get to the room where we started the party. We had inflated jungle animals by some of the signs in front and back yard. 

INVITATIONS: I got the invitation idea from a post on this site. Check online at Family.com. Again I let our grandson help me with the invitations.  We ordered jungle print paper from OTC, elephant, tiger, zebra and some other assorted sheets per package.  We used the 8 x 11 inch elephant print paper, cut out the shape of an elephant head with long trunk pattern, the trunk should be about 3 inches long.  We made the ears big enough to fold over the elephants face. On the left ear we printed ôyou areö and right ear ôinvitedö.  We drew a face with tusks, eyes, and eyebrows on the elephant  and I let my grandson print all the party information. We put Scotts Unforgettable Birthday Party, date, time and address and phone number.  Fold the trunk up to fit neatly against the face. Then fold each ear toward the face, covering the trunk.  I made envelopes out of the jungle animal print paper from OTC.  I made return address labels with elephants on them with our grandson's address. I ask for any jungle animal stamps at the post office, but the closest thing I could find was The art of Disney friendship postage stamps.  I used the Lion King and Bambi stamps, looked cute. 

ARRIVAL: As the children arrived, they were handed safari hats and binoculars.  The binoculars were out of toilet tissue rolls covered with the jungle print paper from OTC.  I found the easiest way to glue them was with the glue gun.  I used black yarn for the string to hang around their necks. 

GAMES:  Jungle Charades--     Used this as a mixer waiting for all the kids to arrive.  Each child picked an index card with an animal pix on it.  He then acted out the animal (no words allowed, but animal noises were encouraged) until the others shouted out the identity.  When the animal was guessed, the rest of the children jumped up and acted out the same animal together.  They loved this.  

We went outside to play catch the lion by the tail.   (a version of duck, duck, goose) (I bought a tail at a costume shop, but it would be easy to make one)  Kids sat in a circle in the yard.  One child, the lion, tucked the tail in waistband and began circling, touching each child on the head and saying Lion.  When he decided he wanted some action, he touched a player on the head and shouts Hyena!.  The lion then dashed around the circle and took the hyena's spot before the hyena could grab the lions tail.  When his tail was snatched, he sat down; if not, he remained the king of the jungle. While the children were circling up to play,

I dressed up in my gorilla suit and came around the side of the building and surprised the children.  Our grandson said who is that in there.   OH, it's Granny.  So I started playing with them.  One of the children touched my head and I started running around the circle chasing him.  Now let me assure you in Texas on July 31 it is hot in a gorilla suit J It was my turn to touch someone's head. So I touched our 3 year old granddaughter's head and she chased me around the circle  The other children are screaming with laughter.  Since it was so hot, we decided it was time to go inside and watch a video. Found an awesome website kideo.com.  They used a picture of Scott's face (the picture has to be the size of a quarter) and inserted it in a video.  The video was Godfrey Goes on Safari!!!!!  Scott's face was in the video 50 times (I counted) and said his name about 25 times.  It lasts about 25 minutes.  The children loved it and were laughing and attentative.

However,  I had a slight problem with the company.  We ordered it about a month before the party and that was a good thing!! When we received it, the video was put on too short  a tape and it cut off in the middle of a scene.  There was about 6 more minutes to go to the end.  So called for them to replace it and they would not replace until we returned the  incomplete one.  We sent it by UPS over night from Texas to New York.  Called to check on its arrival about 4 o'clock that afternoon and one of the girls said they had not checked the mail!!! Anyway, we did receive the replacement 2 days before the party.  But if you are going to use this company, please give them a long time in case there is a problem.

Then back outside to have zoo animal balloon races. I ordered these from OTC. A small car with a balloon attached.  When you blow up the balloon, hold finger over that blow up hole, let it go and it is suppose to run.  We did it on the concrete patio, but didn't work very good.  The children did not care that we weren't having races.  They liked blowing the balloons up and letting them go all by themselves.  So even though the game didn't turn out like planned it was still a hit.  Back inside for safari bingo.  Found it at Party City.  The children didn't like it at all.  Seemed bored so we went right on to the safari animal hunt.  I ordered inflatable  jungle animal assortment from OTC to use as decoration and prizes for this hunt.  I took pictures of each animal and then used a Badge-a-minute to make tokens.  I hid the tokens in the back yard.  I made the tokens into pins so they could pin them on their shirts.  When a child found a token, they turned it in and received the inflatable jungle animal that matched the picture on their token.  The children were thrilled with the animals. Couldn't pry them out of their arms.

FOOD:  Gave the children Kool aid in 14 ounce plastic animal sipper cups from OTC. The only trouble with OTC items is sometimes the variety isn't too good.  I only received one elephant, one monkey and the rest tigers and lions.  One was broken and several leaked.  I wish I had bought the jungle animal cups with straws from Wal-Mart.  Time to eat:  I stamped elephants on napkins.  I made sugar cookies that spelled Scott, elephants, and lions. They loved the Scott cookies.  I made a cake that looked like a tiger.  Bake your favorite batter in a 9 inch round pan (to form the Tiger's face) and two lined muffin tin cups (to make Tiger's ears)  When the cake is completely cooked, set it at the bottom of a large, rounded serving patter with the two cupcakes on top, to make ears.  Frost the cake with orange icing.  I used the white Wilton icing and added their orange coloring.  Use a lot of the orange gel to get a deep, deep orange. I used ready made chocolate icing for the accents. I made catty shaped eyes and a green M&M for the pupils.  Made a triangle nose with the whickers coming out of each side (3 on each side) and a smiley mouth.  Some chocolate zigzags on the forehead and each side and on the bottom.  Our grandson loved it.  For the adults, I had mini sandwiches, chips, onion dip, tortilla chips, bean dip, cheese/meat tray, cheese ball, crackers, cheese dip, and punch.  The adults didn't eat very much so next time won't plan so much food for them. J 

TIME TO OPEN GIFTS:. As Scott opened the gifts, most of the children watched and played with their inflated animals and the racers. As soon as he opened a gift, he handed it to his mother and then opened another one.   

PICTURES:  During the entire party, I had two people taking candid pictures. Ended up with 7 rolls of film and got some priceless shots. (I scrapbooked FIVE 12 x12 pages!!!!) At the end of the party, we all went to the front yard and took pictures with Gracie the Gorilla and each child that attended the party. We put one of the ôtreesö for background and the sign that said Scott's Party  Then we took a family picture, my husband, son-in-law, daughter, granddaughter, Birthday boy grandson  and me, in the gorilla suit.  Our daughter said the pictures turned out so good she might use it for our family picture in her Christmas letter J 

FAVOR SACKS: I  hand stamped the favor sacks with jungle animals.  Each child had glop in their favor sacks.  They were able to take the sippy cup, inflated animals, token pins, box animal crackers, racers, small plastic animals and some really cool jungle animal suckers.  I made a Thanks for sharing my adventure topper for a cellophane bag. Inside that little bag, I put sugar cookies that spelled Scott    

THANK YOU NOTES: I hand stamped a thank you card with an elephant in the center.  Inside each card, I put the picture of each child with Gracie the Gorilla.  I used a Stampin wheel to cover the front of the envelope with an Africian theme.  Used the same Disney postage stamps and return address labels as on invitations.  We all had so much fun.  Many of the young mothers wanted to know if I would co-ordinate a party for them.  Our grandson wants a Cowboy party next year.  So yeehaw I'm already planning.