Safari Party -4yr- Tarzan Tater Tots

Gregory’s Safari party  For our son’s 4th birthday we had a Suburban Safari party where animals from various continents are brought to your home and a presentation is made showing the animal and educating the group about the animals.  Some of the animals present were a parrot, cockatoo, python snake, silky chicken, iguana, greyhound, tarantula, etc.  The kids also got a chance to hold some of the animals and take a photograph with them as well.  I think the favorite animal the kids held was the snake!  The kids also had the opportunity to have full-face painting of their favorite safari animal.   Invitation: the invitation was a half sheet size of stock in the color of Kraft paper. 

The invitation was like a craft where you had to cut out all of the leaves and palm tree out of foam and felt.  A friend had made these invitations for her daughter’s party so got the idea from her.   We used wiggly eyes around some of the leaves to represent some of the animals peeking out in the jungle.  Also used some feathers and foam shaped flower on the invitation.  The invitations were adorable but a lot of work especially during the holidays since all hand done. I ordered clear envelopes to mail the invitations and it looked great.  I used a large label to address the envelopes and then ink stamped the label twice with tiger print around the name of the recipient.  It all looked really nice. I ended up also using the new Disney stamps as they have the Lion from Lion king on them and also had Bambi and since being a child party.    The setting for the party was our backyard and we used our bricked patio for the presentation and set up long tables on the grass and chairs all around.  We also put up a tent which is where we had all the food and drinks.  

Menu: The menu consisted of the following: dinosaur shaped Jane chicken nuggets, Tarzan tater tots, Brisket of the jungle with pistollettes, chicken cabbage salad, cheese torte w/ garlic pita chips, Safari fruit salad, jungle meatloaf, Cheeta’s chex mix, tray of Carnival King Kong which was Mardi Gras colored donut holes since Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, French King cake (almond paste on the inside), fruit tray, chocolate covered ants (raisins), custom made almond cookies decorated with safari animals, #4 and Gregory’s name. We also had other chips and kid snacks for them to pick on.  We had soft drinks, kids juice drinks, hot chocolate and instant cappuccino.  

The birthday cake was chocolate doberge from a wonderful French bakery located in the French Quarter.  They decorated it beautifully and made leaves, animals and jeep out of marzipan to decorate on top.  All the food and drinks were labeled with tags that I made out of the brown Kraft paper and then put them on sticks that I had found over the summer that had a palm tree with coconuts and monkey on it.  The menu tags turned out really cute. 

Decorations: For the decorations, I was fortunate enough in the summer to run to Barnes and Nobles children section and they had a beautiful Safari display up in the section. They had made a large palm tree out of large tube and painted it brown. Then with Kraft paper (contractor’s paper buy at Home depot), they made big beautiful palm leaves which were spray painted w/ green paint.  The leaves were attached to the tree w/ bamboo and then additional leaves were made to decorate the area.  I spoke to the manager about the display and our planned Safari party and they were kind enough to give me these decorations when they were done with this display.  I know they put in long hours making the display so appreciated getting it from them.    

We placed the palm tree on the patio right by the tent and it had a monkey also on it made out of construction paper that also looked so cute.  The palm leaves were used to decorate the tent on the exterior tops and also as backdrop for backside of tent.  We also used the palm leaves to decorate children’s swing set/clubhouse and also the backyard gate and poles to go with the atmosphere.  Our 7-yr. old daughter also made pictures and signs with Safari animals on it that we hung up on the swing set. 

My husband also used glass paint markers and stenciled in some safari animals and palm trees on our sliding glass door by the patio.  It all really looked beautiful. To cover all the tables, I used the Kraft contractor paper and ran a strip runner down the center of the table of safari print wrapping paper.  It looked very nice and went with the theme.  All the tables were covered like that.  I placed safari print cups full of crayons on all the tables so the children could color their favorite safari animal on the Kraft paper as well.     

Music: CD of jungle sounds, Jungle book and Jungle book II Balloons safari print balloons Plates and cups Safari animal luncheon plates and cups (Dixie) and for the cake used the animal plates that are smaller (Hefty).  

Favors: As party favors, the children received straw pith hats and binoculars to use during the party since they were the explorers.  I made little tags that stated thank you for celebrating with me.  Your friend, Gregory outs of the Kraft paper and also stamped with the tiger print stamp.    I covered a box with leopard print Kraft wrapping paper and put the binoculars in the box.  The pith hats were placed on a table to give out to the children.   For the little ones under 2, I found some adorable hard first word books on nature.  

Prizes: during the presentation, the children had to try to guess the name of an animal. We had a tie so each child got a safari flashlight that also made a sound of the animal.    Gregory, the birthday boy, wore a zoo keeper khaki outfit that I purchased at a children’s boutique out in our area over the Summer. He looked adorable in the outfit with pith hat, binoculars,sunglasses, zookeeper patch on shirt and key ring on belt loop for animal cages. I also had a hot pink/black leopard print dress made for our daughter and a matching top out of the same print for me.  

We all worked hard with the party but it all went very well so very happy.  We even sweated it out all week as the temperatures were dropping for the weekend so concerned that it would be too cold for the children and the animals.  I ended up calling the local news stations to talk to someone in the weather department and actually got a call back from the main meteorologist from one of our local stations.  We spoke about the weather and about the birthday party.  It was so nice of him to call me back. The kids were thrilled that the weatherman called back about my son’s party. They are still talking about that! 

My husband and parents were a tremendous help in putting it all together-could have not done it without them! At the end of the party, my brother, sister in law, family and friends all joined in for the tear down and the clean up.  It all went so smoothly and it could have not been done so quickly with out their help. It is nice to have such nice people willing to help.    Since I knew for about a year and half that we were having this theme party, I had time to look around and find things that were ideal for this theme party. It was definitely a memorable event for us.  Our son, the birthday boy, by the end of the night was falling asleep with his thumb in his mouth on a kitchen chair wearing his honorary Party animal T-shirt over his pajamas.  It was the perfect ending for this memorable birthday! 

Next up, our daughters birthday in six months!  We will let you know how that all goes we are going with a Beach theme this year!      Best advise- PLAN AHEAD!   Hope all of this helps and gives you some ideas if you are planning a safari party. Good luck!