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.
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Jen had phoned the kids' parents so no invitations were needed.
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I decided I'd stage the jungle safari party downstairs. I had 4 bunks beds (8 beds) down there, enough to sleep the 6 girls and her 2 brothers, with a full bathroom right across the hall. That way the upstairs where we'd eat our meals would remain undisturbed for the most part.
Staging
I decided to stage Em's party downstairs. I had 4 bunk beds (8 beds) set up down there, enough to sleep the 6 girls and Em's 2 brothers. There was a full bathroom right across the hall. This way we could leave the main floor relatively undisturbed.
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What's a jungle without a waterfall/watering hole? In the corner of my largest wall I built a waterfall.
The rocks framing the waterfall are cardboard boxes hot glued together. I crumpled up kraft paper and glued that to the boxes to create the rocks.
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For the 'river' coming off the waterfall I used $1 apiece vinyl shower curtain liners from the dollar store. The rocks in the river are just clumps of kraft paper crumpled up and shaped.
I used foliate from my craft stash here and there between the rocks.
The only problem would be the stuffed animals.
I mentioned this to Jen and that I'd have to use cardboard standups in order to have the animals large enough that the perspective would look right.
A few days later a UPS truck pulls into my driveway and begins unloading large boxes on my front porch. I had the driver check the delivery address to make sure it was right as I hadn't ordered anything.
I opened the boxes to find huge stuffed jungle animals! (From Jen)
These stuffed animals were life-sized! I couldn't carry them down the steps, I had to drag them down the steps.
I know what these things cost apiece because I'd priced them ($80+ each) but Jen's the type "Nothing is too good for my kids" type...so it was her dime. It did solve the stuffed animal problem.
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On the rest of that wall I wanted to build a safari camp so I bought a camp photo backdrop. I used my dad's old canvas military tent and cot. Because the tent was the stakes in the ground variety, I had to build a structure out of wood pallets to pitch the tent to.
I should've just used my freestanding backpacking tent but live and learn. I had the director's chairs, the trunk and the corrugated crates I'd used for other parties. The ground in front of the tent was a partial roll of event turf I'd been trying to find a use for.
For the safari hunter I used one of my mannequins and dressed him in one of my old cop uniforms and duty belt, my dad's old pith helmet and .22. His pouch was an old cross body purse I had.
If you don't have a mannequin, Walmart has a cardboard safari hunter standup or if you're artistically inclined, you can just cut and paint one yourself.
I finished it off twisting some kraft paper to make hanging vines.
The 2 wood slices I cut from a log on my woodpile. I went into the woods and gathered moss and sprayed it with floral preservative, then glued it to the log slices.
All I needed was the Jeep which I found here $13.
I spray painted it copper with paint I had on hand.
Jen had found a photo on Pinterest that she loved for the girls' dining table. Could I do something like it?
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I found a round leopard print tablecloth on sale for $15. For the netting over the table I strung my hunting netting. You can use fish net if you don't have hunting netting.
I made some more kraft paper vines and wove them through the netting.
Where I live there's an abundance of ferns so for the hanging plants I went into the woods, dug some up and potted them.
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That left a table centerpiece to make.
I was going to use the counter behind my kitchen island as a buffet to put the girls' food on.
I had a partial roll of stone look contact paper I'd used on another project so I covered the windows with that. I built another small waterfall using blue plastic wrap. I used some hangig vines and Spanish moss to drape in spots over the contact paper.
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I got the stuffed animals from a secondhand store for 25 cents each.
Jen wanted to hang pitch helmets from the kids' chairs but they were godawful expensive.
After a bit of hunting I found this 6 count helmet and vest set for $30.
food/menu
We had activities planned all weekend so didn't want to be tied to the kitchen. We kept things simple and jungle themed.
For one outing we packed picnic lunches for the kids. Jen had found jungle themed insulated lunch bags, one for each of us.
I don't know where Jen found the lunch boxes but I found something similar at Amazon in 2 different versions.
activities
We have a phenomenal wildlife park/zoo up here that I'm a member of, so I could get the kids and myself in free of charge, plus get discounts on things like jungle tram ride, etc.
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 and the animals superbly cared for.​
So we spent a full day there and the kids loved every minute of it. And because I'm a member I could get all of the girls in free plus we got discounts on zoo/safari activities within the park.​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!)
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On Sunday the kids wanted to swim and fish so that's what we
did.
That night we built a campfire and made S'mores.
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The weekend and party had been a success and the kids had a ball Up North.
other jungle safari activities
Jen brought one of these along. I set it up on my coffee table and the girls played with it quite a bit. $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 that we could put the Playmobil set around. I also built a couple of jungle huts.
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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!
animal masks
Visit happythought for jungle animal masks templates and have the kids make their own animal masks.
diy jungle binoculars
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
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.
lion lion are you hungry?
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 lion sleeps tonight
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.