6372

Jungle Party -4yr- Elephant Snacks & Juice

May 2003

Holly in Rock Hill, SC USA

Honorable Mention

JUNGLE PARTY - 4 YR OLD  Last September, we hosted a jungle party for my four year old stepson. The theme was totally his idea and I didn't have much time to throw things together b/c we'd just moved into our new home. The party was held at our house (relatively small). It was both indoors and outdoors. 

INVITATIONS: I wrote a quick poem and printed it on white cardstock. I matted it with some green "leafy" patterned paper. The invites were tall and skinny (fit nicely into a business letter sized envelope). I bought some stickers that were jungle animals with party hats, etc and attached it to a block of orange paper with a pop dot for dimension. This was place at the top portion of the invitation overlapping both the white cardstock and the green patterned paper. I bought a box of neon bright envelopes to mail them in. 

THANK YOU NOTES: I made thank you notes out of animal print patterned paper. I didn't do a good job of making sure that everyone had thier picture taken but I made sure to send copies of pictures to the people that did get in them :) 

CAKE: I ordered the cake from a local bakery and they did an absolutely fabulous job. It was very detailed - intricate animals make of icing...even little rocks. Trees were made from large preztels with green icing on top. Super cute! 

PARTYWARE: Plates, napkins, etc were bought at Party City and had various jungle animals on them. 

DECORATIONS: I chose some bright colored streamers (red, orange, purple, green). The colors were pulled from the plates, etc. There is a large entranceway between the living room and dining area so we hung streamers straight down so people had to walk through them to travel between the two rooms. It was fun and really added a lot to the decor. I bought plastic table clothes in matching colors and put them on the table indoors and outdoors. I made a sign on green posterboard that said "Welcome to the Jungle" which was hung on the front door.

Balloons were put in various places - indoors, outdoors, down the street to lead to the house. Matching mylar balloons served as part of the centerpieces. I also purchased some various jungle decorations at Party City. My stepson's birthday gift was a swingset in our new backyard. That was the main "entertainment". I made a sign that said "Jungle Gym" and hung it on the swing set. He also got a sandbox for his birthday. I made a sign that read "Safari Dig". I took small plastic animals and hid them all throughout the sandbox. The kids were able to dig them out and keep them as part of their goodie bags.  

GOODIES: I bought the goody bags at Party City that match the plates and stuff. Animal crackers made the perfect addition. Everything else was pretty much bought at the Dollar Store and I did it to be age/gender specific b/c we had a variety of children attend. For older boys I got binoculars. For older girls I got animal print purses. For younger children I got stuffed frogs that could get wet. One cousin was pre-teen age so she got animal prints hair accessories and a notepad with an animal print cover. Instead of just writing their names on the bags, I made small "tags" that matched the invitations. The parents really seemed to appreciate that each bag was "child specifc" like that.  

FOOD: Food was pretty simple but was labeled with cute names. I can't remember them all but they were things like "Jungle Juice" (green juice boxes), "Elephant Snacks" (peanuts), "Tiger Tails" (cheetos), etc. The signs were made with animal patterned paper and using some animal diecuts made by My Mind's Eye. 

MISC: I had "Jungle Book" playing on the TV in the living room to keep the theme going. It was there for kids to watch, but was not distracting from the actual party activities.  I am an avid scrapbooker and I also put my stepson's scrapbook out on the coffee table (open to a zoo layout) for people to flip through. The adults really enjoyed this. I would recommend photo albums or pictures of the child, even if you aren't a scrapbooker.  I probably have forgotten something. The only thing I would do differently if I would have had more time to plan would be to have some organized activities for the children. They did a fine job of just playing outside on the swingset and in the sandbox, but some games or crafts would have been fun too.

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