Lion King Safari - Cardboard Animals

My youngest son loves animals so we decided to have a Lion King /Safari Party.

The ivitations consisted of Lion King clip art which I found for free from the internet. I wrote a little poem about lions and tigers and asked friends to come help celebrate my son's birthday. At the bottom I put a small picture of the Lion King characters in a funny pose. I printed these out in color. Then took mainla cards and cut them out in the shape of a safari or pith helmet. I cut out a band from cheeta printed paper (which I found at the dollar store) and glued it around the helmet. I glued the written invitation inside. I put a Lion King Sticker on the outside of the envelope.

For decorations I started off by buying Lion King plates,cups and napkins. For the table covers I used green plastic rolls and skirts. I also bought green cutlery. I enlarged and printed out several pictures of the Lion King characters (again from Free clip art sites on the internet). I cut them out and glued some on the table skirts and others were hung around the house. Ie. from the banisters lamps etc. I also took the green plastic rolls and cut grass shaped strips and hung them above every doorway, shelves, fireplace mantle etc. I put up dark green and lime green balloons along the banister and the light fixtures.

The entrance to our house has a long walkway which I lined with Tiki tourches (not lit) topped with bunches of two tones of green balloons. The poles of the entry porch were wraped in brown paper which I outlined to look like palm tree trunks. From the little porch above the doorway I hung more green plastic again cut like fringe on the bottom to look like the tops of palm trees. On the front door I hung a poster (also from the green plastic ) with my sons's name and Lion King characters cut out. I wrapped the green plastic around the walls of my garage to cover up all of our shelves etc. to have a place to go in case of rain. I was able to find tiger, zebra, giraffe and cheeta paper at the dollar store.

I went to a local appliance store and asked for boxes which they gladly gave me for free. I drew each animal life size and cut it out and wrapped the corresponding paper around both sides. I glued big eyes and hair (the krinkly cut paper) which I also bought at the dollar store. I cut out and painted a lion and an elephant too. I also took one of the boxes and cut one end off and made it into a jeep. I made the window frame of the jeep from paper towel rolls ( glued them all together and then painted them one color) I made the steering wheel out of a steering wheel wrap bought at the dollar store, stuck big paper wheels on the outside and placed a chair inside. The kids loved it. I placed the animals all over the house and the garage.

As you came in the front door I had all of my sons stuffed animals ( a big gorilla holding some play binoculars, lions etc) greeting everyone and a large rattan basket to hold the gifts. For entertainment we hired a petting zoo and a pony. As the kids got to the party they went into the pen to see the animals or rode the pony. The zoo left after 1 hour then I gave all of the kids play money and took them to the 'safari shop' to buy their supplies( I had a friend help be the store keeper). They all bought binoculars and a pith helmet.

Then I gathered them all for a picture before they set off on their 'safari' to look for little plastic animals which I had hidden in the backyard. Since I had kids ranging from ages 1- 11 years I asked the kids to find only one animal and bring it to me. I gave them each a little animal note pad and put an animal stamp in their 'safari passports.' When all the animals were found I divided them up amongst the guests evenly to keep.

I also made a bean bag toss game from one of the cardboard boxes. I painted it different shades of green and by each circle cutout I glued one of the Lion King characters which I got from the internet. I made bean bags from cheeta material and the kids loved taking turns playing. Then we had a Lion shaped pinata  filled with candies, necklaces, tatooes etc. all having to do with the safari theme. The food was all placed on the tables in baskets lined with green tissue paper. I had chips, goldfish, pretzels, popcorn, meat empanadas and m&m's. (the party was held at 2pm so lunch and dinner weren't an issue)

The cake was a plain sheet cake ordered at Sams decorated with a tropical theme, sand, a palm tree and water and said Happy birthday. I took my son's Lion King figures and placed them on the sand part.  The goodie bags were made from brown paper bags which I hole puched and tied little tags with the Lion King and I wrote 'thanks for coming to my party'

At the end of the party each guest took home their helmet, binoculars, play money,pi±ata goodies, a safari whistle(for boys), safari bracelet(for girls),their plastic animal, notebook, animal lolipops, monkey shaped chocolates( dollar store), and a great Jungle coloring book (dollar store). Most of my supplies came from the Balloon and Novelty store (can be found on the internet)and the dollar stores around town. Lots of the same supplies are also available at Birthday Express and Oriental Trading.

My son had the time of his life and it was sure worth all the work!  On to my other son and daughter's birthdays!