I wanted my daughter's first birthday to be special and memorable for everyone, but since both my husband and I work I would be limited on the time I could spend on the party planning itself. So after much thought I decided on a Jungle Fun Party. We decided to have it in the afternoon from 2pm to approximately 3:30pm. This is so the young kids could eat and take their naps at home before they come to the party and would be refreshed and ready to have fun. I have a 3 year old son, who would also want to be very much a part of the fun, so I came up with the idea that I would have the babies (up to 2 years) wear these adorable jungle animal hats (oriental trading company) and the older kids (2 and up) would wear the safari hats. Once arriving to the party the kids would receive their hats and the older kids also got to wear their binoculars. Our house is small so we rented a pavilion at a local park and decorated it with balloons, bright colored streamers and a large Birthday sign with my daughters name on it. The outdoor picnic tables were wrapped with a plastic jungle tablecloth and the plates, napkins, and cups all matched. Even the plastic ware was animal themed. At the grocery store I bought Zoo Pals plastic ware. Since the kids were so young I had a cooler filled with juice boxes for the children and sodas for the adults. One of the first party games was for the older kids to use their binoculars to spot and name the animals they had seen. The parents also got involved and wore animal hats too, which was a load of fun for everyone. While waiting for all the children to show up I had build an animal stickers that the kids worked on to keep them occupied. The parents of the younger kids helped their children, and the older kids really liked putting theirs together. I had a mayonnaise jar filled with jungle animal toys and candies that the kids guessed how many items were in the jar. (This was done at the beginning of the party, but it was one of the last events before the party broke up.) The child who guessed the closest to the correct number won the jar. Because of the attention span of the young kids I didn't want the party to last for an extended period of time, so I had everything scheduled and planned on what was to happen next, etc. For the first game we had a jungle animal bean bag toss that I bought online at Oriental Trading. Even when the little ones didn't make the bag in the hole they were all still winners. They won jungle punch-balloons. The kids loved them. They were such a hit that their attention was hard to bring back to the next few games. I had purchased a CD of children's music to play the hokie pokie. It was a short game, for short attention spans. The next game was homemade. I had printed pictures of different jungle animals from the internet and had them taped to the ground. Each child stood (or parent and child for non-walkers) on an animal. I played music and when the music stopped a card was drawn and the name of that animal was announced. The child or child-parent team on that animal received a prize but then they sat out. Each child received a jungle animal pen, and the last child received a jungle animal bean-bag stuffed animal. After this it was time to move on the pi±ata. Our pi±ata was a bright orange with black stripes tiger's head I bought from Oriental Trading (of course). I filled it with safety animal lollipops, gummy bears, animal chocolates and an assorted package of animal toys. (Lion paratroopers, giraffes on skateboards animals stickers, etc) The kids were so young that they had a hard time busting it. (Especially with the blindfold.) So we took off the blindfolds and let them hit it. We used a child's aluminum baseball bat with lots of adult supervision. It took a little bit, but finally the candy and prizes flew. My friend handed the kids brown paper bags and the kids began grabbing their prizes. (Some with the help of their parents.) Now it was time for the cake. The cake was a store-made half-white, half-chocolate with a Minnie mouse and jungle characters we placed on it. I bought a musical candle and everyone sung Happy Birthday. My daughter (with my help) blew out her candle and got really messy. After everyone ate and I wiped her down, she opened her gifts. We thanked everyone for their gifts and then we announced the winner of the mayonnaise jar and handed out goodie bags (that were of the jungle animal theme.) Inside the bags I had put jungle animal stickers, jungle animal bubbles, jungle animal blow up characters, jungle animal bumpies (look like porcupine plastic characters), jungle animal plastic snack containers, and a box of animal crackers. All the kids got to keep their hats and binoculars. Overall I think on the set up and all the prizes, I may have spent $250. The party lasted a little longer than expected. It broke up around 4pm, but it was a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to have a great time. I know my daughter loved all the bright colors and my son still raves about his safari hat and binoculars. I hope this idea helps other parents having a hard time coming up with memorable ideas. This party seemed to be the best way to go for someone like myself who doesn't have a lot of time to make things themselves. My friend told me about this site and I plan to come here from now on to help me with any future parties that I have to plan.