For my twins 2nd birthday I decided to do a jungle/zoo theme party as they just started identifying all animals. I took a lot of ideas and inspiration from this website which encouraged me to
do it!!
The invites were zebra/leopard print paper origami, and inside on white paper I printed lion, giraffe, elephant etc animal clipart and it read, Answer the call of the wild, release the party animal inside, it's sure to be a ZOO, as the twins turn TWO. On each fold, I printed the details, like date, time, rsvp: mama bear, directions: papa lion etc There were 12 kids between 1-3 yrs age and around 25 adults. We rented a 6ft kiddie table with 10 chairs so all kids had a dining space while adults had buffet food. For the decorations, my husband glued green paper tissue leaves on a light green raffia rope to look like vine all around the living room walls. We hung some stuffed animals from these and also from the chandelier etc. I printed A4 posters saying warning: wild party animals ahead(this was on the door), Do not feed the animals, it sure is a zoo as the twins turn 2 etc and these too had animal clipart on them. I made an animal banner of my kid's names by printing each letter in A4 size in zebra and leopard prints. I glued animal clipart on these to join the letters together and make a banner, underneath the happy birthday banner. Plus I got some peelable wall stickers of wild animals and stuck them on the walls .I also borrowed a huge stuffed tiger and horse form my friends and laid them at corners of the room. For the games and activities:, each kid was given an animal mask as they entered(from OTC) and since 2 yr old attention span is short I made only 2 games. For feed the lion I made a lion's face of yellow construction paper, and glued a brown paper mane around it. This was glued on the side of a carton and a huge hole was cut for the mouth. The older kids threw bean bags in from afar but most just enjoyed putting it in up-close. For ring the giraffe I made a yellow paper giraffe, and glued rulers behind his long neck. He too was on a carton which was full of books so it was bottom heavy. I made rings out of embroidery hoops (removed the screws and put masking tape on it). This too was fun and the shorter kids loved stretching to ring the giraffe's neck. Then we had bubble-time (the one from gymboree) with dance music. And this was the best activity of them all. For snacks and food: for kids I put 4 round posters on bowls saying, sharks eat goldfish, giraffes eat branches(pretzels), elephants eat peanuts, bears eat grapes, zebras eat hay(French fries), parrots eat corn (popcorn in small shot glasses I painted white& red stripes on) and monkeys eat bananas( I made banana pops- on small ice cream sticks , I put 2 banana chunks, dipped them in chocolate w/ sprinkles on it, and inserted them in a foam board) this was the favorite snack of the kids!!!!!! For kid's food, I made mac-n-cheese and ordered pizza. For adult snacks, I made hummus and baba-ganoush as dips with bread & chips, sloppy burgers and ordered samosas and pizza. For drinks, I kept juice boxes for toddlers and put a sign, jungle juice and for adults I made green jello- lemonade punch and called it jungle punch. The cake: I baked 2 cakes: a 2 tier 16 x12 rectangular vanilla cake with vanilla custard and fresh chopped strawberries as the filling and a 3 tier 9 round chocolate cake with whipped cream and crushed oreos as the filling. The cakes were joined and covered with green butter cream frosting and then with marshmallow fondant (MMF). I painted trees and shrubs on the fondant, put blue icing gel for a water fall(the choc cake was higher than the other cake)and brown sugar for sand. I placed plastic animals all over and around the cake. This set the theme for the whole party!! The kids took the animals home as favors afterward!! For dessert, I served the cakes with ice-cream. I put bananas, strawberries, peanuts, crushed oreos, in bowls with vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sauce and sprinkles on a platter. And put up a sign saying make your own ice-cream sundae! For the party favors, I ordered them online from OTC. I put all the animal clip arts in a circle and printed and pasted them on white paper bags and each was filled with- a monkey shaped snack plate, an animal paddle ball, an inflatable animal ball, animals coloring book, animal finger puppets, snack pack of animal crackers and candy!! All the kids and adults enjoyed the party and the theme, and my twins had a jungle adventurous 2nd birthday!!!
