Zoo Train Party -2yr- Animal Cracker Invites

For our party we had triplets 2 girls and 1 boy so we went with a 2nd Birthday Zoo Train Theme.  We invited about 50 children ages 1yr-3yrs.  

INVITATIONS:  We started with really cute Animal Crackers invitations.  They were chocolate brown with bright colored animals cracker cutouts printed across the bottom.  They read: Come over and play at our Zoo  The Triplets are turning TWO!"

FAVORS:  We had animal shaped sippers from the zoo so I called the company on the bottom and was able to order the same reusable sippers for about $1.00 each that included elephants lions trains hippos monkeys gorillas dolphins brown bears polar bears flamingos rabbits snakes alligators octopus fish beavers giraffe and tigers.  I also bought up Janie and Jack and gymboree sunglasses after the summer for $1 to $3 each (reg $12) and they had animals printed on them too!  I printed animal cracker thank you stickers and attached them to brown paper polka dot bags.  I filled them with tan raffia and the sunglasses elephant & flamingo fun shaped straws and miniture zoo cameras.  I them attached name stickers and hole punched and tied them with tan raffia ribbon.  

DECORATIONS: We decorated the yard with blowup zoo animals riding toys an extreme roller coaster bounce house whale seesaws kiddie pen with stuffed animals bouncers and picnic blankets.  We poked balloon sticks with balloons all over the yard and had a flamingo mylar "walking" balloon and misc. zoo mylar balloons scattered throughout.

ACTIVITIES: For the entertainment I booked the Zoo to You program for the ZOO to bring 4 petable zoo animals to our home with 2 zoo trainers.  They had a 45 program where the talk about the animals and allow the guests to pet them.  We also hired "zoo keeper" dj's to play fun kiddie music for the kids to dance to. We also borrowed kiddie train from a friend.  It was made to use at parties and has 5 painted barrels for the kids to ride in while an adult pulls it with a small tractor.  The hit of the party was the Gorilla (costume) in the huge cardboard box cage we made.  The kids took turns getting there picture made with it.

PARTY SNACKS: We served zoo animal decorated cookies zoo sippers filled with rasberry lemonade in a jungle swimming pool filled with ice  a chocolate teired cake with zoo animals around the top top and a train track with toy train going around the bottom.  We also had the animal cutouts attached to bowls of the food the animals eat (bananas peanut prezil mix french fries gold fish cut hotdogs strawberries) homemade chocolate hershey bar ice cream animal shaped sandwich cutouts animal crackers with lemon cream cheese and dip with tiger tales (curly fritoes).   We got all the kids together with their sunglasses on and took a picture with the Zoo Keepers and animals.  What a great party!  "