For my son's third birthday party, we decided to do a Diego party (his favorite show!). Even though it is set in the jungle, I really wanted to do a safari theme, and I remembered a show about elephants that was set in the savannas of Africa- so that is what we did! Invitations: I went to Winkflash and made Diego photo invitations using a Diego background and my son's picture. They said: Help Lucas save the elephants!" and gave the party information. We sent them out about 3 weeks in advance to give people plenty of time to RSVP. Decorations: For the tables we used a lot of plastic tableclothes in colors like green blue yellow and orange- we wanted bright colors! We had a tent to protect the food and attached to the tent were some Diego balloons and a banner.  There were lots of other decorations but you will read about them in a few minutes. :) I also had a Diego Animal Jamboree (eBay) cd playing. Activities: As the kids walked in there was a long low table filled with safari hats I ordered from Oriental Trading. The kids decorated them with Diego foam stickers (eBay) and safari animal stickers (Walmart). Our big activity was a special adventure! I typed up Parent's Guides for an Elephant Rescue Adventure so that parents could help their kids through our special adventure course. We announced that the Evil Magician had taken all of the elephants and hidden them at his Castle! The kids started their adventure at the Animal Rescue Center which is this big plastic slide thing we have- you climb up into it and then down a slide. It is kind of like a big tower. It was decorated with palm trees I made out of spraypainted mailing tubes and palm fronds I made out of posterboard (spraypainted also). I had also bought a roll of green butcher paper which I cut into long strips and then twisted up to look like vines. I used these to decorate the Animal Rescue Center as well as the food tent and our basement (where the bathroom was- my sis and I hung all these vines from the ceiling so it was like walking through a jungle!)! (I also handmade an Animal Rescue Center sign). As the kids slid down they grabbed Rescue Packs- I bought white backpacks off of OT and dyed them orange (purple for the girls). Inside the Rescue Packs there were: mini cameras (Click) with pictures inside of safari animals (eBay) little Diego spy scopes and Field Journals- little notebooks I filled with pictures of animals we would see on our adventure as well as facts about each animal. We started our adventure by "flying" to Africa- the kids pretended to fly until they got to the Welcome to Africa sign! Then they stomped through the Sneaky Sands (a big sandbox filled with green and white sand) where they saw the giraffes (I bought some inflatable animals off of OTC and put them all over the adventure course). Then they had to crawl through the Savanna grass (I used 3 hula hoops and the green butcher paper- I cut large sheets of the paper taped it to the top of the hula hoops and then cut them into long skinny strips of paper that hung down. It looked like grass. The kids had to crawl through all three hoops) without waking the sleeping lions! Then they had to splash through the Watering Hole (a kiddie pool with zebras "drinking" out of it). On the way through the adventure we saw monkeys lions giraffes and zebras! Our last stop: The magician's castle! We had a huge bouncy castle that the kids climbed in to find- elephants! I bought a bunch of beany elephants for each child to "rescue" and take home. They were so excited- everyone was shrieking and saying "Mommy! Daddy! I found an elephant! I rescued it!" LOL! After that they got to play in the castle if they wanted to. Most of the kids wanted to do the course again (and the Parent Guide encouraged the parents to use the Field Journals to talk about the different animals) and no one wanted to take their Rescue Packs off! Food: For this age group food was pretty simple. I ordered a bunch of pizzas for the kids and served juice boxes in Animal Mugs (OTC) which were adorable. We also had 2 types of chips salsa dip fruit salad and crackers and cheese. I also served trail mix (my son stood there and ate that while as we were waiting for people to show up- guess he thought no one was watching!).   After the kids ate they were able to bounce or play in the sandbox until a special guest came. We had a clown (NOT full-face painted clown) come in and paint the kids' faces to look like their favorite animals. Then she made them balloon animals which all went really well with our theme. Then she left and another special guest came: DIEGO! We had a Diego costumed character come and dance with the kids and take pictures. It was so cool- the look on my son's face as he watched Diego walk up and then when he danced with him was absolutely priceless. It was awesome! Diego stayed as we sang Happy Birthday and cut the cake. Cake: I made a round cake with a smaller round cake on top off-center. Then I made a trunk two ears and feet out of sugar cookies. I iced the whole cake in gray and the cookies as well. The "inside" of the ears and trunk were pink and the toenails were white. The eyes were white and gray. It was a HUGE hit! After the cake we opened presents which was always fun. One of my son's gifts from us was a Diego 4-wheeler for preschoolers which everyone enjoyed driving around our yard. :) For favors they of course got to take home their safari hats Rescue Packs elephants and mugs. I also had little Diego goody bags with some candy Animal lollipops (OTC) stickers and animal bubbles (OTC).  For thank-you notes I photoshopped pictures of each kid with Diego and put them on a background of Africa along with "Thanks for coming to my Diego Save the Elephants Birthday Party!". They were totally adorable. My son is still talking about his Diego party and so are my friends. It was a really great day!"