Throwing a Jungle Party- Part 4: Planning the table

Now that the house is in order it's time to figure out the goodies. I wanted the food to be jungle-ish for the kids. Here's some pics of the kid table (some of the adult guests really wanted to eat at the kid table)...

Here's the Monkey Mash: 

 Monkey Mash is banana pudding with layers of Vanilla Waffers crumbled in the pudding. Topped with a Vanilla Waffer and Whipped Cream. Spoons are already in so the kids can just grab and go...

Fruit Kabobs:

 Basically because eating anything off a kabob is more fun. REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: Take heavy duty scissors and clip the pointy part of the kabob off. We don't want anyone getting hurt.

Cheetah Crunch:

 It's caramel popcorn with chocolate drizzle in individual little cones. To make the cones I just rolled up a square like a trumpet and pulled it in a few places till I got a cone. Than I hot glued it to hold it's shape. The cones are standing in a Styrofoam rectangle. I pre-punched holes in the Styrofoam and covered with white paper and ribbon.

On the right side of the table we have Toasted Coconut Marshmallow Pops and Grass Pops (Marshmallow dipped in chocolate which is than covered in green sprinkles) ....Also notice the worm bowl :)

 The Toasted Coconut Marshmallows I was lucky enough to find bagged and ready to go at Walmart. Phew! One less thing to do :)

Here's a snap of the adult area:

 For the adults I made:
*BLTA sandwich triangles. Toasted in a panini press for nice grill lines
*Chicken Ceasar Salad wraps. It's basically the salad wrapped in tortillas
*Pasta Salad with cucumber, feta, tomato, olives and olive oil --yummy
*Veggie Tray - handmade - just keep empty veggie tray platters. It's so much cheaper than the store bought and your guests get a lot more veggies!
* I also put out some trail mixes for people to munch on...

Throwing a Jungle Party: Part 1, Party Favors

This year my son asked me for an animal theme birthday party. My response: "Animal?....That's a really broad theme....can we narrow it down some?" My son: "....Well....ok....I really like lizards."
And that was the start of it. To be honest, I probably could have done a lizard party, but I'm really not a huge fan of all the reptiles, so I just did the whole jungle- lol! Here are some ideas for a great party, and let me tell you it was great! The kids had a blast!

First things first, when throwing a party, there is a lot of prep work. The first things I made were the favors. I knew that my hubby and I were gifting a bearded dragon to our son, so I thought 'how fun would it be to send a lizard home with everyone?' Now... I would never REALLY do that to other parents. I would never be forgiven- lol! But a plastic, realistic looking one would totally do the trick! Now, to package it to make it look real :) How about white little boxes, stamped with the words LIVE ANIMAL and FRAGILE. I also punched little air holes and tied it with twine.

On the inside I put shredded brown paper and the thank you.... along with the lizard of course. I bought a 12 pack of lizards off Amazon. I specifically purchased assorted plastic PVC Toy Lizards set of 12 (if you click on this link I'll take you right to them)  for $4.35. DEAL! And since we have Amazon prime, shipping was free, and tax free :) Love stuff like that! On the inside of the box, I wrote a little thank you poem. Any type of thank you note adds a personal touch to the favor. This is also a great way to customize it to fit your party. Here was mine:

"Thank you for spending your day with me. I hope it was fun -- as fun as could be!
Please remember to take care of your lizard in the very best way.
(Remember that lizards really like to play)
When you spot your lizard hiding in your dresser, possibly making it even messier...
Please don't scream out in surprise "this is not ok"...but instead remember the great time we had today!"

These were such a hit with the kids! One of the kids even jumped when they opened it- I guess these little lizards really do look real!

TIP: Once you place your lizard in the box, do not tip it over, the paper and lizards will get all tangled up and will not be as cute when opened. 

Dora backpack invitations

My youngest daughter wanted a Dora birthday party this year. She's been very adamant that it's Dora themed. I wanted to bring the fun Dora theme to the invitations in a personalized way. I was a little bit stumped as to how to do that... so I went online. I Googled "Dora party invitations" and a lot of pictures of backpack came up. I also came across a couple handmade backpack invitations and I thought, well... if they can do it... I can too. And so I did! 

The hardest part was coming up with the template. I wanted to print them on purple card stock from home and them just fold the card stock to look like a backpack. 

It took a couple tries but then I came up with a shape I was finally happy with. I ended up printing out a couple copies of the backpack on white paper just to give me the shapes of the eyes and mouth. 

After that it's all about cutting out the mouth, eyes, eyebrows and lots of gluing! I think it turned out pretty cute though! And I've gotten a lot of complements on them from other parents. I think that even though it was a lot of cutting and gluing, it was worth it.

Another special touch I did was cut out strips of purple card stock and glue them to the back of the invitation like backpack straps. 

Here is the finished product :)

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE TO PRINT OUT THIS TEMPLATE

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