Jungle Safari

On October 17th we had a birthday party for Ben and Emmy. We had a jungle party. I can't take the credit for the idea, my sister-in-law did a jungle party for my niece. I thought it would be the perfect theme for Ben and Emmy's party since the theme is gender neutral.

For the party we had to special guests! We did the birthday party on the Saturday my parents were in-town visting us.
Before the party I took some fun pictures of the birthday buddies. You can find the other pictures here. Of course, I had to take pictures of Hyrum too! My mom bought the kids pins for their shirts that said it was their birthday. They loved them. Ben's pin said, "Its My Birthday." Emmy's pin said "Kiss Me Its My Birthday."The kids were really excited for their friends to come to their party. When the guests first walked through the door they got to pick out an animal hat to wear. Most of the hats for the kids to pick had jungle animals on them. As luck would have it, Emmy picked the duck hat. Emmy loves ducks. Ben picked an alligator hat.

After the hat was chosen, each child decorated their goody bag. As you can tell in the picture below, Emmy likes stickers.When the bags were decorated, the kids were separated into two groups, boys and girls. The boys started off at the monkey toss. Brandon drew a monkey on a cardboard box and cut out the face. The kids were given a little monkey to use as a bean bag. The object of the game was for the kids to throw the monkey through the hole.The girls started at the "Pin the Nose on the Lion"After everyone had a turn, we rotated the groups. The girls went to the "Monkey Toss" and the boys went to the "Pin the Nose on the Lion"When the games were finished, we had a small lunch for the kids of cheese, apples and other tasty healthy treats. While Brandon, my mom and I were getting the food ready my dad had the kids make different animal sounds. The kids loved it!Back Row L to R Tucker, Elle, Emmy, Maggie, Noah, Lexi, Austin
Front Row L to R Ben, Lincoln, Hyrum, Lainey, Ben and Corban
Hyrum and Ben M.Emmy and Lexi
Corban, Lexi and Emmy

Next, came the Jungle Safari. Before the party Brandon hid various animals in the backyard. The kids were sent out to find all the animals in the yard. Ben and Emmy loved it!
After the Safari, Ben and Emmy opened their presents. All their friends gave them such great gifts. They have really enjoyed them all!
After the presents were opened we played a game called "Hippo in the Mud." I made mud puddles out of paper grocery sacks for the game and laid them in a circle. When we played music, the kids would walk around the circle and when the music stopped the kids would hop on a puddle.

Brandon made an awesome turtle cupcake cake for the party. I think he did a fabulous job! He is officially our cake decorator for birthdays now.
Brandon put three yellow candles and three pink candles on the cake. Ben's favorite color is yellow and Emmy's favorite color is pink. However, when he put the turtle down for the kids to blow out the candles the kids were in the wrong spots. Emmy blew out the yellow candles and Ben blew out the pink ones. Oh, well! Ben and Emmy were too excited to have everyone sing Happy Birthday and to blow out the candles to notice. The party finished with eating the turtle cake. Overall, I thought the party went really well and all the kids seemed to have a great time. I know Emmy and Ben were quite pleased to have their friends over to celebrate their birthday.