My precious Chempedak turned four last year and when I asked her what theme would she like for her birthday party, she excitedly replied “ANIMALS!!”
Of course, at that moment, we were watching Madagascar 3. Why else would she want something other than animals. So just to be sure, weeks after, I asked her again. She still wants animals. The following month, I asked her again, this time, she elaborated.
“Mommy, kita nak lion, elephant, giraffe dengan yang white and ada stripes black tu, apa tu?”
“Zebra?”
“Ye! Birthday kita nak ada zebra!!”
Right. So an animal themed party it shall be!
I was really excited for her party this year. She’s already at the age where she could understand and follow instructions well so proper games would be a great addition to the party.
As always, the first thing I did in the party planning stage was to settle the venue and guest list. Truth be told, every year I wish to throw a huge birthday bash for Chemps. I just want to invite everyone in my phonebook and have this huge celebration. Unfortunately. I’ve gotta be realistic. My pocket isn’t exactly as deep as Kim Kardashian’s. Hence, after thinking it through, we decided to keep the guest list small and ensured that it consisted of those around Chemps’ age instead of the other way around.
I spent weeks prepping for her little party. I had to steal time whenever I could, it wasn’t easy DIYing a party when you have a baby taking up most of your free time but I was determined to make it happen, hahahah. So, for around two months, my office desk had animal themed prints and props strewn on them. My colleagues became my ever willing test subjects and my boss deserves an award for being the most understanding boss EVER.
Alhamdulillah, party day finally came and all went well. My husband became my super-sidekick and while I did all the major background prep, he was the excellent executioner. All the kids had a superb and memorable time and most importantly, Chemps was the happiest four year old on that very special day. Check out what went on during her animals themed birthday party!
The cake cutting session started off the party, with a very amusing animal themed cake complete with a pink elephant and a voluptuous monkey.
A whimsical jungle themed cake, the birthday girl was thrilled!
Then it was time for games!!!
First up was Animal Rescue! Earlier in the day, the husband and nephews hid plastic toy animals all around the garden.
Shhh… they’re hiding
We rallied up the kids and told them that they have to help rescue these missing animals!! It’s their mission!!
Are you ready??? YEAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Once they were all riled up to search for these missing wild animals, we gave each of them a pair of home-made binoculars to help them in their search and rescue mission.
I wonder how this works…
I see you!
“OH! I see a lion!!”, says one of my Rangers.
My nephews and niece had duties as Rangers that day, to ensure the younger kids played safe and did not accidentally touch thorny plants during their search.
And off they go!
Where oh where can the animals be?
Rescued animals are placed into the Rescue Centre Basket 😀
When all the animals were safe and sound in the Rescue Centre, we moved on to the next game: Pin the Tail on the Hippo!
For this game, I printed out a large picture of Gloria the Hippo (from the movie Madagascar) sans tail and made a few card board cut outs of her tail which i simply drew free hand using MS Paint.
Our sexy hippo with the missing tail 😀
Each kid took turns to be blind folded…
And took a wild guess where the tail should be!
The next game was Feed the Monkeys!
This is simply an altered form of the carnival bean bag toss game.
I printed out a few cute monkeys, pasted them onto two cardboard boxes stacked together and cut holes where their mouths are.
The hungry monkeys!
As for the bean bags, I made hand sewed some felt bananas and filled them with mung beans! They were just perfect! The kids had a splendid time “feeding” the monkeys!
Monkeying around 😀
Once they’ve had enough of the monkeys and bananas, we let the kids roam about to do whatever they felt like.
Some took pictures at the photo booth which I made using a photocopy machine’s cardboard box 😀 I got lucky as the office made a recent purchase so I grabbed the empty box and made full use of it! Of course there were animal face props-on-sticks to complete the feel!
Grab a prop!
Strike a pose!!
The sand pit was also a great winding down section. Perfect to calm the energy bunnies that were slowly running out of steam.
Sand play all the way!
A congregation of jungle plastic-ness
And there you have it 🙂 My DIY Jungle Animals themed birthday party 😀 Hope you enjoyed this little post!
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