Yesterday was my daughter's fourth birthday party. We came up with the idea of having a 'Safari Party'. As the guests came up to the front door, they were greeted with a cut out of a giraffe standing underneath a canopy of cut out leaves (found at a party/teacher supply store).  As they entered the house, they had to travel through some vines, which were just brown streamers hanging up. We had green streamers hanging from our dining room to give the effect that we were under a shade of an African tree.  We even had taped leaves to the streamers to give it more of the real feeling. I even had my little girl bring out some of her stuffed animals that were related to this type of theme, and had them placed throughout the area. Our first activity as each of the guests came, was to do two arts 'n crafts. We had previously cut out elephant trunks, and their job was to decorate it with leaves as if the elephant was having a snack. The other craft was to decorate a brown lunch bag, which I had cut down and added string to it for handles, and the kids was to add animal safari stickers, and to draw however they wished onto the bag.  These crafts was to be used at other games later on at the party.  After the children played for a little bit, we had them go outside with their bags that they decorated.  We had hidden animal crackers outside, and we proceeded to have an 'animal cracker safari hunt'.  What a fun idea!  The children had a blast finding them. After they had found them all, we had the children count how many they had found.  Whomever had the most won a prize.  Our next activity was pin the trunk on the elephant, this is where the other arts 'n craft came into play.  We made our own elephant by drawing it on posterboard, cutting it out and placing it on brown craft paper. Whomever came the closest with the trunk, also won a prize. I had found a wonderful bingo came at the party/teacher supply store that was even safari related.  The children had a wonderful time with this game, and wanted to keep playing it. We had provided supper for the children by making 'peanut butter and jellyphant' sandwiches, which were even cut out in the shape of elephants by the use of an elephant cookie cutter.  After mealtime, we sat down and opened presents.  The children all sat in a circle holding their presents that they brought. I played music, and as the music played the children passed the presents around (like hot potato). When the music stopped, whatever present my little girl was holding she got to open.  What a less hectic way to open presents than the old traditional way! The children even enjoyed doing it this way. We had a lion cake, that was laying in some grass ready to spring onto it's prey.  The party ended with me handing out animal safari masks which were lions, cheetahs, monkeys, and giraffes to each of the children to take home along with animal shaped sippy cups in the same theme.  I had also placed inside the cups a pencil with elephants on it, and an individual bag of animal crackers.  The children as well as the adults thought it was a wonderful party, with lot's of neat ideas. I'm hoping I can give other parents some help in sharing these ideas with them in planning their children's safari party.