Welcome to the Jungle

The Girl turned four yesterday. It was also the day of El Birthday Party Supremo. (Can you tell I took AP Spanish?)

As I alluded to earlier, the theme this year was the hybrid jungle safari special. This is the kind of safari that takes place in two continents simultaneously in order to maximize the exotic animals that can be featured. It also maximizes the number of songs one can play on a trying-way-too-hard playlist, a.k.a. my oh-cute-oh-it's-over brief, song-deficient playlist.

But, I did play "Welcome to the Jungle" by GNR because HEY. I had to.

The invitations:

Each had a picture of the invited child and details about the party, passport-style.

Apparently, there is some serious strep throat rampaging across the countryside since 3 children fell ill THAT SAME DAY. Kind of a bummer to not have some of her good buddies coming, but we'd still have 8 kids. And, more sangria for the rest of the adults, right?

The Girl welcomed her guests wearing her safari hat that she decorated earlier and led her friends to the hat making station where they decorated their own with foam animals.

The Boy also was pressured into donning a hat, but he was less enthused about the hateful thing that we kept trying to slap on his head.

*actual length of time hat on his head = 0.02 seconds.

Mystery animal tracks were on brown builder's paper along the entrance hallway, leading downstairs into the basement.

Hats made, the kids were off to follow the tracks downstairs into the brush...where a safari camp site featuring the Moonbounce, of course! Since there's always a Moonbounce at a safari camp site in the middle of the jungle!

Of course, everything else is just an accessory when there's a jungle safari moonbounce in the mix. We could have had real boa contrictors and zebras and the kids would have been like What.Ever.

We laid out a brown plastic tarp on the ground outside of the bounce and had those flickering electric candles to set the mood. The Jungle Book was playing on the TV but after realizing that this put The Girl in a trance that made her neglect the bounce that WOULD NOT BE HERE IN A COUPLE OF HOURS while the movie would be available for perpetuity, we mysteriously lost power to only the TV.

Upstairs, we more civilized adults enjoyed sangria, mini-tacos, banana chips and Cava.

(the kids had "bug juice" which also contained a good percentage of apples and green #4)

After a good amount of bouncing, it was time for the safari.

The kids put on their decorated safari hats and their binoculars and were unleashed into the backyard where animal figurines were "hiding".

This was my favorite part of the party. The kids were so excited to find the little figurines tucked in different places, on the fence, on stumps, on the patio furniture...after they found them all (and everyone, even the little ones found some), we put them all together and split them evenly.

The pizzas came right on time, how the delivery person made it into the jungle beats me, and we all got to eat outside on the deck in the gorgeous, gorgeous weather. 

Then, probably The Girl's favorite part: CAKE.

A Snake Cake. (2 bundt cakes - one yellow, one chocolate and my first foray into dyeing frosting. It was intoxicating. And I'm not talking about the fumes.)

Yes, those are poor little peeps waiting to be consumed.

And for those with nut/egg allergies, another snake.

Unfortunately for the snake, we had to stick candles in its head and light them as part of a jungle safari ritual sacrifice. Afterwards, it was dismembered and eaten.

Even though a bunch of people couldn't come last minute - I was thinking previously how odd it was that EVERYONE said they were coming - it turned out to be a great number overall and a really good group of people. Add a few more kids into that moonbounce and someone may have lost an eye. I think she had an absolute blast.

Overall, I think it turned out as well as I could have hoped for. Every last drop of the ginormous punch bowl of sangria was drained which I hope was more about the adults enjoying themselves than trying to drown out hearing "Welcome to the Jungle" again.  At the end of the night, The Husband told me that maybe I need to let the memory of this party die before attempting another one. He thinks a Chuck-E-Cheese party is in order for the 5th. And maybe the year after, I can go big again. I don't know. I'll have to think about it.

Me and the birthday girl.

Comments

[flutter]

seriously? you throw the BEST parties

[slouching mom]

You, my friend, are AMAZING.

[alejna]

Woman, you throw a great party. I love the passports. And the searching for hidden animals bit. Awesomeness!

And the cake! Ssssweet!

[jen]

shut up. SHUT UP!

next year just bring them my way.

you are amazing, my sister friend. amazing.

[Ali]

Passports? Genius. Snake cake? Double genius. I am grateful that I live in CA so I can steal your ideas and no one will know the difference. :)

[NG]

This idea is brilliant! I hope you don't mind if I steal each and every nuance... but then how would you stop me? Bwa ha ha ha.

[Janet]

Can I hire you? Because a bouncy castle and sangria is exactly how I want to celebrate MY birthday this year!

[Manic Mommy]

I am so jealous! Every detail of that party rocked! We're having the typical "jumpy place" party for Gremlin on Saturday. Yours is loads more creative...and the adults can drink!

[Kyla]

Dude, come do my kids' birthdays...this rocks.

This weekend is BubTar's party and the big plan is go to the park, allow children to run wild, feed cake and ice cream, open gifts and THE END! And a pinata...I almost forgot that part.

[Gwen]

Love, love, LOVE your ideas - and I'm totally stealing them for next year! These are the parties your kids will remember when they are older, not the Chuck E Cheese ones. And, you only have a limited number of these parties before your little ones grow up and will be telling you what they want.

[KC]

Aw, thanks. I love doing these but no one would want to be around me T minus 30 minutes if you KWIM.

Re: stealing ideas. Do so with my blessings. I'm going to add a picture of the figurines later since they were really perfect - hippos, rhinos, tigers, gorillas, giraffes, lions, etc: Oriental Traders is the bomb! That's also where I got the kiddie binoculars and the inflatable animals that you see in the moonbounce. (the animals were all around the house.) One of the binoculars was broken which I only discovered the beginning of the week and because I had 12 kids exactly originally, Oriental Traders fed ex'd a new package to me at no cost. Customer service there is awesome.

Got the idea for the passport invitations from a website (although the passports were slightly different and meant for adults), modified them, and printed the cover out on cardstock and just plain white paper for the insides. I have templates that I'm happy to share - just email me.

Sad it's over!

[anna]

K, you are soo brilliant..you never cease to amaze :) J is very lucky :) xx, anna

[magpie]

I think you just might be the Martha Stewart of children's birthday parties. That is awesome.

[Hetha]

I see a book deal in your future! How you find the energy, time, and brain space to pull together such creativity is simply unimaginable to me! Looks like a total blast.

[Asianmommy]

How fun! Love the passports & the cake.

[Lyn]

AWESOME!! May I suggest a Hot Wheels party for the little kiddle's first friend gathering. We had differnt races going everywhere an the kiddos loved it. Also a HUGE hit was the Mad Scientist party for my Prince's 8th. You have already mastered green frosting so a Frankenstein cake should be a cinch. Welcome to the Party years!!

[aimee]

Can you please plan my next birthday party? Pretty please! This looks like it wa a blast!!

[mary ellen]

What an awesome party! I loooove the cake. Would probably fight over the head. (Oh no! I would not. I would generously give it to the birthday girl ;)

[Middento]

I can't believe I didn't tell you this, but believe it or not Xan had a birthday party the next day -- and we arrived to find the Jungle Bounce thing!! Xan was ridiculously overjoyed and showed all the kids how to launch themselves off the slide. (And there were many more kids at this party. And therefore, pile-up after pile-up. I went to get more pizza.)

Seriously, you DO do the greatest parties. And that sangría was yummmmy. Thanks again for having us!

[Elaine at Lipstickdaily]

What a great party . . . fun and at home and not full of ridiculously expensive crapola . . . I'm totally gonna use this for our next party . . . though our birthdays are in the winter and I'm totally sure a jungle bounce is not fitting in our playroom!

[Bouncy Castles]

WOW looks amazing!!!!!! You sure know how to throw a party!

[sd karte 4gb]

Great thought. It is very interesting and amazing. I love your idea. I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.

[Sandy]

Loved your ideas, it looks like it was an amazing party. I'm planning a safari birthday party for my 5 year old nephew, and would really appreciate it if you would email me the templates for the passport invitations as soon as you possibly can. You are talented and full of great ideas, thanks for sharing.

[Didier Ramos]

I love the passport idea! Did you make them? If so can I hire you to make 150 of them for me? If not can you provide me with the contact information?? Pretty Please?!