This safari party was for our 4 year old son.  He loves animals so he was thrilled to be involved in the planning of this party! We created our own invitations with cardstock and stickers of safari animals purchased at our local craft store. Our son placed the stickers on the invitations, personalizing each invitation with "special animals" for each guest. We saved some of the cardstock and stickers to create thank you notes after the party. Children were greeted in the garage where I had attached a safari mural to the wall.  (I bought a roll of paper and drew trees, grass, and small pools of water along several feet of it.)  As each child arrived, they were given an animal with their name to tape onto the mural. The "animals" were purchased as a kit at a local teacher supply store. I had crayons and extra animals available so the children could decorate the mural. It is a priceless treasure for my son now that the party has ended!  Then we walked into the house where I had a craft table set up for the children to make animal masks from kits puchased inexpensively at shindigz.com (8 masks for $7). For lunch I had the kids make their own lion pizzas. Each child had their own personal pizza crust. (Since there were only 8 children, I spent a little more money on the pizza crusts. But you could do this inexpensively using english muffins or something else.)  I had the pizza crusts prepared with sauce before the party began. The children decorated their pizzas with pepperoni for the eyes and nose, cheese triangles for the mane, and cheese strips for wiskers.  Adults and children loved these!  I arranged for someone to cook the pizzas while I played games with the children.  I gave each child a brown gift bag with their name written on the bag. I told the children that it was time to go on a safari and hunt for some safari animals.  I found some stuffed safari animals at a local store where everything is $1. I purchased an animal for each child and tied a square of colored cardstock onto each animal, with a different color for each animal.  The gift bags had a square of cardstock also.  I hid the animals in the yard, and each child found the animal that had the same card color as the card on their bag.  I had also printed animal tracks around the yard. Each child found as many animal tracks as they could and the one with the most tracks received a prize.  When the safari was over, it was time to feed the monkey (a version of pin the tail on the donkey). I printed a picture of a monkey and bananas to use for the game. The table was decorated with a green table cloth and red and orange streamers and baloons.  I used zoo pals plates and green napkins, cups, forks, and spoons.  The children ate their lion pizzas and adults had sandwiches. I made jungle punch, using lime sherbert and sprite.  A local bakery had a madagascar themed cake - I had them make this cake with the background only and I added toy safari animals that were later added to my son's collection.  When the children were finished eating, we watched my son open his gifts. The party ended with a lion pinata with pull strings purchased from shindigz.com. The children filled their gift bags with goodies from the pinata. I really did not spend alot of money on this party. It took alot of planning.  I spent about a month looking for ideas and inexpensive supplies.  I think the extra planning is what kept the cost down, but made this a special party for my little boy.