Jaina's Animal Rescue Safari Party!

I've opened an Etsy shop with lots of cute banners and decorations.  These Burlap and Muslin Banners are so cute and perfect for a Safari Party.  Please check out my Etsy shop!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/183072901/safari-burlap-and-muslin-fabric-birthday?ref=shop_home_active_12

My adorable little niece Jaina loves to talk about being an Animal Rescuer when she grows up.  For her 6th birthday party, choosing the theme was easy; we threw her an Animal Rescue Safari party!

These cute little tents are built from a design by Lowes found on their website.  My husband was a really good sport about building them.  Unfortunately, after the first side panels were put together we realized they were going to be much too big to transport to the park, so my slightly less enthusiastic but still oh so wonderful husband cut them down in size and reframed them, and then they were perfect!

They turned out so cute and the kids had a great time playing in them!

We greeted the kids with a little Safari supply shop, named after the little brother, where the kids got a safari hat, water bottle and safari map when they arrived.

The birthday girl checking out the Safari  Supply.

Some of the goodies on the treat /favor/food table!

I made some Chocolate 6 lollipops, chocolate covered marshmallow pops, and some animal print surprise balls that were a big hit at the end of the party!

             Her mommy, Melody, baked all of the delicious and super cute cupcakes.

Using a grass cupcake wrapper idea found on pinterest, I modified it and instead wrapped it around small green cups and filled them with dressing and veggies.  We kept lunch pretty simple since we were out in a park, and the kids enjoyed the veggies, skewered grapes that looked like little caterpillars and good old cheese pizza.  Just enough jungle themed items to be fun and still really easy to pull off in the park!  Can't go wrong with the veggies and pizza for the adults too plus Melody prepared some nice salad choices for the adults.

Then it was time for the adventure to start and to finally put to use all of the games I have been busy coming up with and painting!   Of course we had to begin with the announcement  that some animals were in trouble and needed to be rescued!  So in a little nod to Jaina's hero Diego, Click the camera showed up to show us who they were. This worked out very nicely as I wanted to settle who would get what animal before we began the search and so that everyone was happy at the end.  The kids chose from the group picture the animal they would be rescuing and I gave each of them an individual picture of their animal at the start of the hunt.

Everybody got a safari map to help them find their way.  The kids enjoyed getting a stamp on their maps after each activity too!

First obstacle was to crawl thru the hollowed log!

Then watch out for the quick sand!

And beware the large wild animals along the way!

( I am pretty proud of myself about these animal cutouts!  I was inspired by the wooden cutouts used in Loralee Lewis' safari party and really wanted to make some.  I have had my shiny new jig saw about 2 years but have been too chicken to use it.  I finally got myself convinced that I probably wouldn't cut off my own hand, and gave it a whirl.  I am so tickled with how they turned out!  I made a big alligator, rhino, giraffe, giant gecko, baby jaguar and turtle too.  I was on a role!

Then on to the games!

This big monkey was hungry and nobody was going to get past him without tossing him a banana!

Uh Oh!  The Rhino was really mad and we couldn't sneak past him without settling him down with a tranq dart for a few minutes of sleep!

Wouldn't you know this poor little elephant had a snuffly trunk and needed some help rounding up some snacks!

And the hedge hogs all needed a little help getting tossed back into their hole!

And if all of that wasn't exhausting enough..the poor little zebra lost his tail!  A quick game of pin the tail on the zebra..(using the honor system of closing their eyes) had everything back where it belonged!

And all 5 of the kids that could reach got it dead on center!  They were amazing! :-)

Finally the animals were found and were all rescued!

And they were all shown a lot of love by their new little friends who got to take them home!

Everybody thought it was a good idea to head over to the animal rescue center and give them a check up!

And wouldn't you know they all needed a few bandaids and bandages to feel all better!

 I was a little bit sneaky because I know that Jaina's love of becoming an animal rescuer originates from watching Go Diego Go!  The Safari theme was a lovely animal based party and without going over the top on a character party I snuck a few elements in.  The baby Jaguar wood cut out I painted is modeled after the Go Diego baby Jaguar and still fit right in with the rest of the wooden cutouts I made for the party.   Coincidentally, Diego wears a safari hat and so did all the kids!  I wanted the kids to know which animal was theirs ahead of finding them so that that part of the party went smoothly and my imposter of Diego's Click the Camera was just the thing!  And finally for the the Animal Rescue center  I enlarged some of the Diego patch symbols to make a sign for the area. A few little touches without going overboard on the character items made it especially fun for everybody, including a very special 6 year old whose opinion of the party is what mattered most to me!

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