Big Game Birthday Safari
Birthday magic! Your backyard has turned into a jungle filled with wild creatures. Put on your pith helmet, load your camera and set loose the party animals. Your Passage to Fun Invitations
Go with a passport theme. If you've got pictures of all the invitees, paste them in, just like real passports. Here's a suggestion for the invitation text: Come on a birthday safari!
Who knows what you'll see?
Could that be a lion?
Or a monkey in a tree! Invite everyone to dress as their favorite wild animal. Getting Ready for the Trip
Drape green and brown crepe paper across doorways, over tree branches, anywhere to create vines. Decorate with balloons or stuffed animals. Play tapes of jungle sounds to complete the mood. Equip everyone with disposable cameras for shooting the wild animals they'll encounter at the party. Make a Face!
Use commercial face makeup, or mix up your own from the following recipe, to paint wild animal masks on the children. Face Paint
2 parts vegetable shortening
1 part cornstarch
Mix with powdered tempera paint.
Apply with fingers. (It will come off easily!) Banana Pops
Place an ice-cream bar stick in the end of a banana (or half a banana). Roll the banana halfway up in melted chocolate chips or almond bark, and then roll in chopped nuts. Wrap in plastic, and place in freezer a few minutes before serving time.
Critter Cakes
Let kids create their own exotic animals by handing out unfrosted cupcakes and a variety of trimmings. Have several containers of colored frostings on hand, along with coconut, candies, nuts, sprinkles and miniature marshmallows. Yellow-colored or toasted coconut makes a great lion's mane.
Safaris Are A-Mazing
Using large boxes for tunnels, boards for bridges, and wild stuffed animals for added jungle dangers, you can make a safari maze in the backyard. Cut ends out of boxes and place them individually around the yard for kids to crawl through. Join several to make a tunnel. Add a few stuffed animals to jump over, and have children cross dangerous bridges—boards lying on the ground or elevated slightly by a brick or concrete block. Cut out a green paper crocodile to place under one bridge. Younger children will enjoy this fun obstacle course the way it is. You can create a more challenging adventure for older children by making the obstacles a little more difficult and by having the children divide into teams and running the course as a timed relay. Tracking Big Game
Have the children track wild game by following footprints around the yard. On each print, write instructions for an activity the kids must do before they can move on to the next print. This could be things like: - The tiger cub is missing; look for it by running around the tree six times.
- The monkey is out of bananas; ask for bananas by hopping on one foot 10 times.
- The giraffe has a sore throat; talk for it by counting to 25.
Chimp Race
Have players stand side-by-side. When you give the signal, they should spread their legs apart, bend over and grasp their ankles. Have them walk to a finish line...keeping their knees stiff! The one who gets there first wins. Anyone who loses grip of his or her ankle must go back to the start and try again. If you have a large group, this game makes a great relay. Create-a-Creature
Who knows what you're likely to find when you're in unknown territory? This one is similar to Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey. Draw and cut out all sorts of animal parts: ears, eyes, horns, trunks, tails, legs, antlers, etc. Tape up a large body shape. Blindfold the children and give them a body part to attach. What in the world is that? Party Animals
Send kids on a wild animal exploration. You can purchase small toy animals as party favors, and hide them around the yard. Or, you could use pictures cut from magazines. (Looking for the pictures and cutting them out is something fun the birthday child can do to help get ready for the party.) Another variation for younger children would be to hide peanuts and tell the children to pretend they are "elephants" looking for their dinner. Older children might enjoy being led to the "lion's den" by the clues you've hidden around the yard. With one clue leading to the other, they'll soon find the hideaway, which has prizes and treats for everyone, of course. All good trips must come to an end. Wave goodbye and send your birthday partiers home with a box of animal crackers and their disposable cameras.
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