Reptile Party 4yr

My daughter wanted someone to bring animals to her 4th birthday party, and I found a local reptile expert who brings snakes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, and spiders to the house. She comes to gave a 1 hour long talk and lets all the children hold and pet the animals.   INVITATIONS: For invitations, I bought cardstock and chunky foam stamps of a turtle and lizard. I stamped a turtle and lizard with paint on the cardstock, cut them out, and glued them on the invitations. Then I bought die cut spiders and glued them on as well. Each of the animals on the invitation got a set of googly eyes. The front of the invitation read 'Creep, Crawl, Slither or Slide.... to Anna's 4th Birthday Party.' And the back had the time, place, and explained that we were having a reptile expert.   DECORATIONS: For decorations, I got some old wallpaper sample books (FREE!) and cut out lizards and stuck them like they were climbing all over the walls. I got netting to hang from the ceiling and hung rubber snakes, and got some fake vines from the florist to hang from there as well.    ACTIVITIES: I read up on Reptile/Animal parties, and a lot of the experts recommend you do something calming with the kids before they arrive. They said that having the kids run around before the party makes it hard for them to handle the animals gently. So I planned some crafts for the kids to do before the party. I invited my daughters entire class (30 nursery school children!!!) so we divided the into groups, and each did a reptile craft as the arrived. Thank goodness I have 2 wonderful stepchildren, who were willing to help the nursery school children do crafts!! The groups worked out well, as the children who arrived early made the most time consuming craft, and the children who arrived later did a shorter coloring craft. The first group made a paper plate turtle. The glued green tissue paper on a paper plate and them glued on a head and legs. The other group decorated construction paper snakes. The crafts took a total of 30 minutes.  Then the reptile expert arrived. Most of the kids sat very still and attentively while she talked about the animals. The each got to hold a snake, and a turtle. Our expert was very good a gearing the talk towards their age range. There wer audable gasps from the kids each time she brought out a new animal.   PARTY SNACKS: After an hour it was time for food and presents. I made snake pizza- bagel pizzas, cut in half and placed in a squiggly line. At the front, I put olive eyes, and a pepperoni tongue. I made rainbow jello, and dirt and worm cups. I also has sandwiches, and Rainforest Slaw. Drinks were little juice bottles, which a re-labeled. Some said 'Lizard Lemonade' and the other 'Strawberry Snake Squash' with pictures of Lizards and Snakes on them. A number of the kids asked if there was actually lizards and snakes in the juice.   CAKE: For the cake, I did a cupcake tower instead. I frosted the cupcakes green and put pretzels sticking out of some of them and put green fondant leaves on top so the looked like palm trees. I bought a lizard and a turtle cookie cutter, and cut lizards and turtles out of fondant, and decorated them with food coloring pens and put them on the other cupcakes. And rolled some other fondant into snakes which I made striped with food coloring pens.   FAVORS: My favorite part of the party was their party favors! I bought bamboo butterfly nets wholesale (£1 each) and inside I put: a magnifying glass, a rubber snake, a rubber lizard, and stickers. I tied them up with a tag that said 'Thanks for being a part of Anna's Birthday!' I explained to them, they would be able to catch reptiles now, and explore their own yards.  My daughter was really pleased with her birthday party!