Wild Animal Party -7yr- Jungle Tree Patio

For my daughter's 7th birthday we had a Wild Animal Party. 

For the invitations, I found some cute leopard print note cards at the dollar store and I printed the following information in them off my computer:   Lions, Tigers and Bears - Oh My! Giraffes, Zebras and Monkeys too? You are invited for a Roaring good time to the wildest party around to celebrate ______ 7th birthday. Date:_________ Time:________ Where:_________ 

For the decorations, I went overboard this year! I purchased a large roll of the brown painters paper at my local hardware store. This I wrapped the patio post in, so they would resemble tree trunks.  Then I took long pieces of the same paper and rolled it and twisted it up to make the "branches" of the tree and these I taped to the tree trunks with clear packing tape. I then took a ream of green paper and had my Dad cut out 1000 leaves from this using his jigsaw. I then took each leaf and stapled them to the branches. The effect was really cool and it looked like we had actual jungle trees on our patio. I then took two different shades of green streams along with some more of the brown paper and made vines that I also stapled leaves to and hung these from the patio ceiling. 

I purchased a dozen parrot blowups from Oriental Trading and I hung these from the ceiling as well. I also purchased a dozen wild animal blow ups and sat these all around the party area, there were monkeys, elephants, zebras, giraffes, etc...  I also took all my daughters wild animal stuffed animals and sat them around as well. One table had a zebra print table cloth with wild animals along the boarder and the other table had a vine print on it with colorful monkeys all over. For the plates I used Zoo Pal plates.  Our patio really looked like a jungle and all the guest were very impressed with all my hard work. 

The cake was frosted green with a blue frosted lake running down the middle. I purchased a set of wild animals that came with small plastic trees and we placed these all over the cake. It turned out really cute and was very easy to do.  I found a really cute bounce house that we rented that had a huge butterfly on top and when the kids bounced it looked like the butterfly was flying.  As each guest arrived they were given a neon animal print derby hat and I took their picture next to a 6 foot blowup monkey (also purchased from Oriental Trading). I sat the monkey next to our ivy covered fence and took each guest picture, I then later had these photos printed  at a local store in card format and used these as the thank you cards. 

For the games, we played pin the bananas in the monkeys hand (A really good deal also found at Oriental Trading for less than $3), Animal Beanbag toss (another game from Oriental Trading),  Animal Bingo ( I made this on my computer and printed the bingo cards onto card stock), then I also have two other games that we always play, they are carnival games that I purchased from Oriental Trading a few years ago. Ping Pong toss, where you try and land a ping pong ball in a floating glass bowl.  Ring a duck - floating plastic ducks and you try to toss a ring over one of them.  We also had a sack race and a basketball toss. 

For each game the child won tickets. Before we started playing the games I gave each child a zip lock baggie with a string through it so they could wear it around their neck and I wrote their names on their baggie, this is where they collected their tickets, so they wouldn't loose any.

At the end of all the games I had a table set up with prizes where they could purchase the prizes they wanted with their tickets.  They really enjoyed picking out their own prizes - this was a big hit. The prizes consisted of: animal stickers, animal tattoos, candy (naturally), animal print bracelets, animal springy jumpers, and animal necklaces.  We also had two piñatas.

I found Incredible Hulk piñatas at a local dollar store (WOW - $1 for a piñata!) and I cut out a piece of poster board the same size as the Hulk picture and glued this over the top. I then glued on pictures of different wild animals. Since the piñata was so cheap, this is why we had two. One piñata had prizes in it (small toys, crayons, stickers, etc...) and the other had all sorts of candy in it. Kids love piñatas, so it was a huge hit to have two! 

Find the goodie bags: Each year I make up a game where they kids have to follow clues to find the goodie bags. I think they enjoyed this years game the most.  I printed off 25 coloring pages of different wild animals and colored and glued them to pieces of cardboard. I then put a stake on the cardboard and set these all around the backyard.  On the back of 10 animals I had placed an envelope with a  written clue inside for the kids to follow. (In past years before the kids could read I just had picture clues for the kids to follow)

I start out by reading the first clue to the kids and they have to find that animal. Example: I have a long neck and I am very tall.  Answer: Giraffe, so the kids would go find the giraffe, which would have the next clue. Example: I am gray and I have a trunk and big ears. Answer: Elephant.  They read each clue until the last clue lead them to the animal with the goodie bags. This is always a huge hit at our birthday parties and it is a blast to watch all the kids running around giggling looking for the next clue. In the goodie bags, I put an animal print stationary set (which consisted of a notepad, pencil, eraser, ruler and stickers), a little wooden animal slide puzzle (also another great deal from Oriental Trading), several wild animal stickers,  an animal water squirter, a bird water whistler and an animal gummy sucker. 

My daughter keeps telling me this was her best birthday yet and she says her friends keep telling her what a good time they had. This party took a lot of work, but the end result was well worth it!