Alea's Roaring 2nd Birthday

We brought my daughter to the zoo earlier this year and she was enchanted by the ‘eh phants’, ‘gee waffs’ and ‘zee bars’ so much that I decided to do a jungle safari themed party for her. As she isn’t a very girly girl (she’s into cars, busses and the colour blue), the colour scheme stayed true to a jungle environment with its animal occupants. I decided to have 4 separate areas, a Dessert Table, a Drink Station, a Safari Buffet and a Play Area.

The Dessert Table is supposed to be like a safari trail with different animals to see at different points of the table. Hence the little safari jeeps moving in a line at the front (and being stared at in turn by the animals). The cake included a little girl topper made to look like Alea and is just gorgeous. The Drink Station had a drink dispenser with swamp water (easily made with A&W rootbeer float and vanilla ice cream) and mini milk bottles decorated with ribbon (Wild Animal Milk) and animal toppers (Tiger Juice, alternate apple juice with blackcurrent juice). Water and soft drink bottles had labels that said “Jungle Juice” to keep with the theme. The Play Area included a table filled with activities for the kids, as well as special takeaway gifts for kids under 10. Colouring paper specially designed for Alea’s Safari Party, bubble mixture in cute safari animal bottles, animal headbands, balloons galore and a safari themed baby pool filled with balls acting as a mini ‘ball pit’ had the kids running around and enjoying themselves in that area.

This party allowed me to meet and collaborate with some really amazing people and it wouldn’t have been such a success without their help and input. I also sourced a lot of the decorations from various online shops around Australia and nurseries in Melbourne.

Concept and Styling – Simple Elegance
(including the Banner, Animal Toppers, Mini Animal Print Paper Fans, Food Labels, Misc decorations, hire of glassware, wooden tree bark items and linen)
Photography – White Spark Photography
Paperie - 2 Love Birds (includes backdrop, chocolate bar wrappers, wraparound drink label, favour tags, favour sign, straw flags, invitation and colouring paper)
Cake and cupcakes – Jenny Lee
Rectangular animal cookies individually wrapped – Kookie Krumbs by Kirstie
Hessian Tablecloth – Vintage Sew & So
Pompoms and Leopard Fanette – Ah Tissue
Paper Lanterns (plain and animal print), Animal Print Gift Bags and Paper Straws – The Little Big Company
Catering – Fabulous Finger Food

• Desserts

  Cake, Animal Cookies, Animal Cupcakes, Trail Mix and Chocolates

• Party Favors

  Animal shaped Cookies in Animal Print Paper Bags

• Activities / Games

  Play Area with Ball Pit, Bubble Bottles, Coloring Paper and Crayons, Animal Headbands

• What People Ate

  Various Finger Food

• What People Drank

  Swamp Water, Jungle Juice, Wild Animal Milk

• Best Moment

  The birthday girl tasting chooclate cake for the first time and then immediately saying, "More cake! More cake!"