I planned this birthday party for a very dear friend of mine, Jen and her daughter. They'd just returned from Disney World and her daughter loved the Animal Kingdom park. (Can't say I blame her, that was my fave park as well!)
Her daughter wanted a Jungle Safari party.
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Well, I didn't think I could top the Animal Kingdom park but hopefully I could come in a close 2nd place?
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My friend lives several hours south of me. I didn't want to have to drive that far so we agreed she, a friend and all of the kids would come north to my house and we'd make a weekend of the Jungle Safari party.
Invitations
We really didn't need invitations for this party but I decided to make one so the kids could have a souvenir of their weekend north, especially the birthday girl.
I made the invitations in my computer graphics program.
Staging & Props
So we had we 3 adult gals and 8 kids. (Good thing I'd done that Space Camp with the 8 bunk beds downstairs!) But we'd spend the majority of the weekend on the main floor of the house so that's what Jen and I worked on staging,
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The main floor living space is open concept so I drew the diagram below to give you an idea of the space we were working with.
What's a jungle without at least one waterfall and watering hole for the animals? I removed one end table and 2 pictures from the wall to clear the space where I'd put this waterfall.
It's so easy to make! It's mostly crumpled up kraft paper. To make the sides of the waterfall I stacked some empty boxes and hot glued the crumpled kraft paper "rocks" to those. I spot spray painted the "rocks" with some brown, black and gray paint to make them more realistic.
The waterfall is simply metallic fringe curtains. I'd bought a lot of 6 for $18.
To make the foam at the bottom of the waterfall I used cotton hairdressers use when perming hair and just pulled it apart slightly so it wasn't so compressed. You could also use sewing polyfill and pull that apart
slightly in the same manner.
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For the river I just used light blue el cheapo shower curtains from the
dollar store that cost $1 each. I used 3 of them. You can also use blue bedsheets or blue tarps.
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For the foliage I scored big time on a sale where you spin the wheel for a percentage discount. I spun 52% off so got 100 pieces of jungle foliage for 18 cents apiece. That's what I used for my foliage along with a few pieces I had in my party stash.
But if you don't stumble on a score like I did, then dollar stores have inexpensive pieces of greenery for $1 each.
For the animals at the watering hole I visited a secondhand shop here that had a large above swimming pool just FULL of stuffed animals - 25 cents each.
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I keep a binder of photo ideas that I'd often work from in staging. Jen saw the photo below and loved the idea. So did I for that matter. The most labor intensive part of my staging was hanging my hunting nets from the kids table all the way over the adult table. I then tightly wound some kraft paper to make vines that I wove into the netting.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
We wanted to put pith helmets and safari gear at each child's table setting but the helmets alone were godawful expensive.
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After a bit of hunting I found this 12 count helmet and vest set at right for $28.
My pantry cupboards have a woodgrain countertop on them and we'd use that counter to put food on.
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I covered the 3 windows with kraft paper. I'd painted a portion of one side of it to look like dilapidated wall. I made a second smaller waterfall over the kraft paper using one of the fringe curtains I'd bought. I had Spanish moss in my party stash so hung some of that by hot gluing it to the top of the kraft paper. Over the moss I hung some trailing vines.
For the kids table I found
​2 leopard print tablecloths $26​
Jen found safari chairs at her local rental store so she was bringing those up with her.
For props I used one of my grandfather's old railroad lanterns, a pair of old binoculars and a stuffed tiger. The giraffe was a cardboard stand up. These were all items I had on hand except for the stuffed tiger I'd paid 25 cents for at the secondhand shop.
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Still, the staging was missing something. So in another corner of the living room I set up a downsized hint of a safari camp using my old steamer trunk and the wooden crates from my pirate party.
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It was still missing something.
I ran downstairs, got my mannequin and went through my closets finding clothes and boots that would work.
Thank heavens my dad had kept his old pith helmet and .22 rifle.
WALLA! Safari hunter.That completed the staging.
The only item I bought for him was a $1 fake moustache at the dollar store.
Food/Menu
We had a full weekend of activities planned so didn't want to be messing around in the kitchen. We kept the menu simple and just put a "jungle safari" twist on it.
We did have an all day excursion planned for the following day and were going to pack a picnic lunch for it. We bought each of the kids an insulated jungle theme lunchbox.
We let the kids make their own lunches.
Lunch menu:
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PB & J Tortilla Roll-Ups
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Cheetos
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Bananas
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Veggies
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Animal Crackers
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Zebra cakes
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Juice
Tablescapes
You have to be adaptable if you're going to be a party planner. We had 2 tables to tablescape - the round kids' table and the much larger table for the adults. But Jen and I stumbled on something to tablescap for the kids that wouldn't fit on their table, so switch - the kids' table became the adult table and the kids got the much larger dining table.
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I'll start with the adult table centerpiece - which was originally for the kids' table.
I got this idea from Pinterest.
I had everything I needed but the Jeep.
I cut the wood slices off a log from my woodpile. I gathered moss and other greens from the woods around my home and sprayed them with floral preservative before hot gluing them to the wood slices.
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All I needed was the Jeep which I found here $13
I stumbled on the centerpiece for the kids' table quite accidentally and immediately phoned Jen. "Take a look at this!" I said.
She loved it so much she decided she'd buy one for her youngest. I said "Well bring it along when you come because we'll use it!"
If I'd only known about these Playmobil sets earlier! For only $33!
Of course, I had to jazz it up a bit...
I made a river down the center of the table out of crumpled blue plastic wrap (at right) that we could put the Playmobil set around. I also built a couple of jungle huts.
My niece's kids had outgrown their plastic jungle animal toy assorment so she gave them to me and I scattered those around the river and Playmobil campsite.
The kids were thoroughly entertained with those Playmobil sets while we gals prepared our meals.
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And when the party is winding down, you can give the set to the birthday boy/girl or award it as a prize so it does double duty! Best $33 I ever spent.
activities
Everyone arrived Thursday night because we had a special activity planned for the kids and we didn't want to have to fight the weekend tourist crowd.
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We have an absolutely phenomenal wildlife park up here called Wildwood. I actually like it better than most large city zoos I've visited. I took some of my nieces and nephews there when they were young and they absolutely loved the place.
The park has a petting zoo, a parakeet enclosure where you can feed the parakeets, giraffe feeding, a safari tram, a safari train, a trout fishing pond, an outdoor learning amphitheater, an educational center and animals from all over the world. There's picnic areas and a gift shop. And I'm not kidding when I say you could eat off the ground there. The park is kept exceptionally clean.
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So we spent a full day there and the kids loved every minute of it.
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The next day we took them to the Northwoods Wildlife Center. This is a rehabilitation center for sick, orphaned or injured wildlife. They nurse the animals back to health then release them into the wild again unless their condition is such that they'd die if released into the wild again. So they have some resident wildlife that visitors can see during their visit, including a bald eagle that visits schools to help teach kids about wildlife.
The kids got to see the eagle (up close and personal, not in a cage), some orphaned baby otters, fawns that had been injured, some bear cubs, a couple of owls, even a coyote. At the same time, they learned what to do if they ever encountered orphaned, sick or injured wildlife and what it took to nurse them back to health. (I'm sure Disney's Wild Kingdom didn't teach them that!)
Catching a nice bass on a toy fishing rod!
Of course, the kids did some swimming in the lake and fishing too.
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They were shocked when a wild wolf that's befriended me paid us a visit! His name is Mukisa and he's the alpha leader of the pack on my lake.
We had to make the kids stay on the deck when Mukisa came to visit or he wouldn't have walked right up to me like he usually does and I didn't want the kids scaring him or too close given he is a wild wolf. But it was a nice unexpected touch to their safari party that they got to see a wild wolf up close and not caged.
That night we built a campfire and roasted marshmallows as most nights you can hear Mukisa and his pack howling away across the lake. Sure enough, they did - much to the kids' delight.
If you'd like to hear a wolf howl, click on the audio player button
But if you don't live in the boonies, have a wildlife park or a wolf that comes to visit you...not to despair!
Here are some more jungle safari party activities...
more activities
Visit happythought for jungle animal masks templates and have the kids make their own animal masks.
DIY BINOCULARS
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Can't very well go on safari without binoculars!
You can make these ahead of time or let the kids make them. We let the kids make them and decorate their pith helmets at the same time.
ANIMAL CHARADES BINGO
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Here's a free printable for your 'Bingo' cards. We used mini plastic toy animals as bingo markers - available at most dollar stores.
You'll need 2 kids playing 1 bingo card for this one. We'd call each child up and whisper to them what animal on the bingo card they had to act out in a charade.
Be sure to include some animals that AREN'T on the bingo card! If the kids had that animal on their card, they marked it with a mini animal until someone called out "BINGO!" While each child is acting out his/her animal, their partner is marking the bingo card.
LION LION ARE YOU HUNGRY?
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One person is the lion, and stands at one end of the yard. The kids are at the other end of the yard. The kids yell together, “Lion, Lion, are you hungry?” to which the Lion will say “No, not really, come closer”. The kids will all come a little closer and ask the question again. This happens over & over, until the Lion finally answers “Yes!"
At this point he tries to catch as many children as possible and they become lions too. The game starts over, with the new lions on one side of the yard and the other kids at the other side of the yard.
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Alternate version Monkey Tag: This game is played much like the classic backyard game of freeze tag, but the player who is “it” has to act like a monkey. When a player is tagged, rather than freezing in place, he or she jumps around and acts like a monkey. Once a player is turned into a monkey, he or she has to continue to imitate a monkey and helps the original monkey tag the remaining players until only one player is left standing that's not a monkey.
THE LIONS SLEEP TONIGHT
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Forget freeze dance, the lazy lions are too tired for that kind of action. Instead, play some music and have your party guests prowl around the dance floor, roaring like lions. When the music stops, instead of freezing, the kids will fall to the floor and lie still like sleeping lions. The last child to become a sleepy lion is out of the game. Start the music again and play for as many rounds as it takes until only one player remains.
(This was the kids favorite game)
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We used the old Tokens song, The Lion Sleeps Tonight for our music.
That wraps up the Safari Party and now this lion is going to sleep tonight...