When I asked Noah what kind of party he wanted this year, he told me a lion party. After scouring the internet and coming up mostly empty, I asked him if we could have a jungle/safari party instead, with an emphasis on lions. He gave his assent and I went to work.
The invitations were made with lions I had made using several different paper punches, which were sitting in long grass. I had also bought some jungle leaf brads really cheap online, and those were placed in the corners for extra decoration.
Many of the ideas from the party came from Family Fun. I had thrown a safari party for Nick several years before, using the same ideas, and the kids loved it, so it went together pretty quickly.
First up was the safari training course. If you couldn’t complete the obstacle course, then your hopes of surviving the safari were very slim. 
They had to put on a safari hat and a backpack, and carry a map and sleeping bag under their arms, while following the tape all over the house. There were places where they had to jump over lakes, crawl through a bat cave, avoid crocodiles and water snakes and slide under a waterfall. I timed it and the kids had fun cheering each other on, trying to beat the previous time.
Some of them even followed whichever kid was actually doing the obstacle course, so they could get in extra practice, I guess.
I was so happy to find these cool green plastic plates for the party. They really helped the table look more jungle-y.
All the animals were waiting to be used in a sort of bowling game, and then later they were the treat bags for the kids to take home. We had LOTS of potato chips for the hungry party goers to snack on. 🙂
We played a game where most of the kids hid under a sheet, while one waited in the other room. Then they would come out and try to guess which lump was which person. The kids under the sheet were supposed to be quiet, but that wasn’t always easy to do! The child doing the guessing would ask if it was so-and-so and they would answer “no”, so then he could tell who it really was by the voice. Still, they had fun and there was lots of giggles.
For snack there were lots of beetle wings (potato chips), dried ants (raisins), crocodile teeth (apple slices) and jungle juice to drink. Did I mention that it was super hot that day? We had the fan blowing full blast the entire time, and the kids drank a ton!
Noah used his stuffed lion to choose which present he would open next. Notice the binoculars around the kids necks? We had played a game where I hid tons of plastic/rubber animals in my bedroom. The kids were sent in pairs with a flashlight each, to go discover as many animals as they could in 2 minutes. I had closed all the shutters and pulled the blackout drapes across, so it was pretty much pitch black in there! After everyone had had a turn, I handed out the binoculars and let them all go back in with the lights on to see all the animals they hadn’t found. There were a ton leftover, and the kids were amazed that they hadn’t seen them earlier. 🙂
We have a ton of tiny stuffed animals from Ikea, as well as lots of little finger puppet animals. The kids got to play Feed the Lion, by trying to toss the animals through his open mouth. I really wish I had made the cheeks different , so my sad lion looked more like an actual lion and less like a electrocuted bear. Oh well, the kids didn’t care.
They just had fun throwing things and not getting in trouble for it. 🙂
Once again, what I thought was a huge gaping hole ended up being too much of an obstacle for the kids. So they kept scooting closer and closer to the lion. I let them, it’s supposed to be fun, and there wasn’t a prize for the winner anyway.
Seriously, these completely free binoculars made from toilet paper rolls and some printed paper and string were the hit of the party. The kids couldn’t believe I was letting them take them home. Who knew?
Using materials found here, and not all the stuff Family Fun recommended that can only be bought in America, it ended up being an okay lion cake. But while in the States I did purchase many more colors of food coloring, so this never happens again. 🙂
I love this picture because Noah’s cheeks are almost as big as the lion’s. 🙂 It was a really fun party to throw, especially since all his friends are such great kids.
Happy birthday, Noah!