Lion King Party 3yr - Pumbaa & Timon

For my daughters 3rd birthday party we did a Pumbaa and Timon theme. 

We turned our living room into a jungle by renting a helium tank for $10.oo at a party store and buying green balloons in all different shades.  We put the balloons in bunches of 4 or 5 and tied them together to make trees and put them in the corners of the room.  I made palm trees out of card board and painted them with poster paints and then placed a slit in the bottom of each tree to insert another piece of card board to form an X shape so they would stand in the room on their own.  I also made fern bushes the same way by making just the top of the palm tree without the trunk. The moms loved the palm trees so much they used them to take pictures of their kids with the birthday girl!  

The invitations were made simply by taking a new, unsharpened colorful pencil and taping on a 3 ft. piece of paper streamer in teal green onto the end.  We wrote all of her party information on it lengthwise and used Pumbaa and Timon stickers to decorate.  When the children received them in the mail, they had a twirly stick to play with.   I placed pieces of silk ivy on the shelves and tables and on the birthday table. Then I searched the toy box for any jungle animal I could find, such as plastic giraffes and lions and placed them next to the ivy. On the cake, I used Timon and Pumbaa plastic McDonalds toys to decorate. 

For the birthday girls crown I made a flower wreath to place on her head as the "jungle princess" by taking 2 stems of silk flowers in purple and white and twisting them together in a circle shape and tying a bow in the back.  Be sure to leave long lengths of ribbon end hanging down from the bow.   For the ceiling, we blew up (without the helium to save money) dark blue balloons and tied them 6 inches apart on a very long string and pinned the ends around the ceiling and door frames for "sky". The long string made it very easy to put up and take down after the party.  

For party favors and games we made hula skirts (remember when Timon dresses in a hula outfit to surprise the hyenas in the movie?) out of crepe paper streamers and tucked them into a piece of yarn tied around the children's waists. The kids made macaroni necklaces for the leighs. The day before, I colored large pieces in shades of green and yellow in ziplock bags with 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol and food coloring and let them dry flat overnight.  The alcohol keeps the pasta from becoming sticky and the colors are much brighter, just keep them out of little mouths! Then we played freeze dance games to Disney songs.  

For snack we made Jell-O jigglers and cut them into shapes of rhinos and served gummy worms for the "grubs" and goldfish crackers.   For take-home favors I made each a goody bag of a craft project for a caterpillar refrigerator  magnet with all the pieces pre-cut and instructions included.  The pieces included a piece of green felt in a long oval shape, a magnet strip, 3 green pom poms, wiggly eyes and pipe cleaners for the antenna. We gave the kids strips of Pumbaa and Timon stickers too.   The kids had a great time and although it took some planning the week before, we were able to give her a great party and save a little money