Warning! This is long! We did this last year for my daughter, Sarah's 6th birthday.  It was fun for both girls and boys. We sent out jungle themed invitations from Birthday Express. We also used the same theme for the plates and napkins.  I sewed a tablecloth from cheetah print for the buffet table. Made bandanas for us all to wear to the party with the extra fabric. Even the dog had one!  My daughters all wore white button-down shirts with khaki shorts, their bandanas and straw pith helmets.  My husband's aunt has been to Africa a lot and had some great items for us to wear. My husband wore a khaki photojournalist vest over a white shirt and I wore a beautiful African caftan. We were also lucky enough to borrow some of her gorgeous artifacts like statues and drums. We decorated the house with a wall covering we found at a party supply store that looks like bamboo.  It was in their luau section. About 3 weeks before the party, my husband and I made a ton of flowers and leaves out of colorful crepe paper. It's a great project to do while watching T.V. We hung these all over the house and backyard along with strands of raffia. We also decorated our canopy outside with the flowers and leaves.  We hung a big paper parrot (Oriental Trading) in the middle of the canopy. My daughters provided the jungle themed stuffed animals which we scattered everwhere.  We hung their toy monkeys from the chandelier.  We also put up animal print balloons (OTC).  We made a jungle CD with various music including Disney's Lion King, Disney's Jungle Book, Disney's Tarzan, some authentic African drum music, Rainforest music, and The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The first track on the CD was the traditional Tarzan yell I found on a website devoted to the old Tarzan movies.  We entitled this CD " Sarah's Jungle Jams" and played it during the party. Each child also got a copy to take home.  We put a picture of Sarah wearing a pith helmet and holding our paper parrot on the cover. It really added a lot of ambience. Our first activity was a Safari Hunt.  My husband painted some animals on cardboard and hid them around our backyard.  Each child was given their own "Passport" upon arrival. We made these on the computer. We listed each safari animal in the passports and printed stamps and old vintage looking travel posters over the pages so they looked like well seasoned travelers. Each page had a space for a sticker. The stickers were placed with their corresponding animal in the yard-giraffe sticker with giraffe elephant sticker with elephant etc.  Once they found the animals they were instructed to take a sticker and place it in their passport.  The kids loved this!  They of course took their passports home with their goody bags. Weeks before the party my husband and I decided to teach ourselves face painting. We learned quite a bit from a website called Snazaroo.com.  They sell really nice face paints too.  We practiced on our kids and took pictures of them to show our guests a menu of what they could get for their own face.  We did zebras cheetahs tigers monkeys and butterflys.  Our guests really loved turning into an animal! We set up a large mirror right next to the face-painting table so they could se themselves. We took a close-up picture of each guest after their faces were done and later printed them on a thank-you note. We did a sign-in sheet for the kids who wanted their faces painted. While they waited for their turn we had painted a big jungle mural on a large piece of paper and hung it to an outside wall.  The kids were provided animal stencils washable paints and brushes to add their own animals to the mural. This was later hung in Sarah's room for a keepsake. After face painting we had lunch. This was Sarah's favorite pasta salad and tropical fruit platter.  I made sugar cookies shaped like jungle animals. I also made a 2-tier cake with jungle animals made from Wilton candy melts.  Got the idea from a terrific book called Whimsical Bakehouse.  After lunch we did an ostrich relay. The kids had to race with a white balloon (egg) between their legs.  Hilarious! We then had a Lion-roaring contest. Some of the adults even got into this one. We had printed out some paper ribbons for awards with Loudest Roar Most Ferocious Scariest Funniestetc. printed on them. Sarah helped judge and pass out awards.  After presents and cake we passed out goody bags.  Oriental trading company has the cutest little pencils erasers stickers etc. with a jungle theme. Love that catalog! Just a really fun party and Sarah had a blast! "