Coolest Kid Birthday Party Ideas

Looks like a bunch of untamed kids are about to have a wild time at your safari theme party!!

But don't worry... You won't need to go out on a wild expedition trying to find the best deal.

Just compare between the packs below which cover pretty much all the Safari party items on the market:

Here's a cool do-it-yourself idea for passport invitations. Write something like:

"This is your passport for a birthday safari filled with fun and excitement. (Birthday Kid) will be leading an expedition through (your address- adding "Africa"). The safari theme party adventure starts at (time). All explorers should bring their completed passports.

Explorers may want to practice their wild animal sounds, especially roaring like a lion!!"

Ask the kids to dress up in khaki clothes and whatever safari-ware (or animals) they like.

If you want to create your own design, you can find pictures and clipart to cut and past onto your invitations. Here's a great place to find wildlife pictures online.

And, here's my hand-picked selection of safari theme party pictures, posters, clipart and coloring pages to get you started.

*To get instant access to the printable designs you'll need to subscribe first (FREE) to the Birthdayography ezine at the bottom of this page upon which you'll get the necessary username and password.

Deck your safari theme party area with safari-colored balloons (brown, tan, green, yellow etc.) and same color streamers.

And... This awesome safari gossamer is probably the best (and most inexpensive) investment you'll make for your party. You can use it to cover the furniture, walls, ceiling, table, etc., instantly and easily transforming them into a wild safari scene.

At the entrance to the safari theme party, you can also put up your own homemade sign post with lots of arrows pointing in different directions, such as "Zimbabwe ---> 3000 miles" and "Ngorogoro Crater---> 899 miles", etc…

If you really want a ride through the African plains, here's an excellent Safari Scene you can set up (which is also a great scene-setter for photos and thank you cards.)

Another great party and photo prop that'll bring the safari animals to life is a life-sized animal standee. You can choose from a Gorilla, Lion or Tiger and have them guard your party entrance. Then take photos of the kids posing next to the animals and use them for thank you cards.

Use chalk to draw big animal footprints on your driveway and leading to your front door. Inside you can put construction paper animal prints that can guide the kids to the party area. If you're having the safari theme party in the evening, you can place tiki torches all around your yard and everyone will feel as if they're in Africa! Here is a wide selection of cool torches.

Unless you live in Africa, the only wild animals you'll have at your safari theme party are the guests. And they sure can make a ruckus. But to get everyone into the safari theme party mood, this truly AWESOME animal sounds CD of leopards, hippos, rhinos, monkeys and every other imaginable animal sounding their call of the wild!

The kids can wear safari pith helmets, animal headbands or ears out of construction paper, fake fur (glue or sew onto inexpensive headbands or barrette clips). If you decide to turn the children into animals instead of safari hunters, be sure to paint their faces accordingly!

When the kids arrive at your safari theme party, take their "passports" and send them to the Med booth where they receive a malaria pill (jelly bean in a glass bottle with a big red cross sticker on it - and explain to them what malaria is) and a typhoid shot (a toy needle) and can be warned about yellow fever, don't drink the water, etc.

Here are some of the fun safari theme party activities you can start the kids off with:

*Buggy Frame: This fun Buggy Photo Frame Kit has the kids designing animal photo frames and magnets. You can take a digital photo of each kid and have them put it into the designed frames to take home. The kids (and their parents) will love'em.

*Charade Cards: One of the games described in the safari theme party games section is animal charades. To prepare for the game, put out a bunch of magazines and have the kids find animals, cut them out, and paste them on index cards. These'll serve as the charade cards later on.

*Binocular Craft: Have the kids take two toilet paper rolls, styrofoam cups, etc., and glue or tape them together. They can decorate their binoculars with all kinds of stickers, glitter, stamps etc. Next they can cut out cellophane circles (or colored saran wrap) and attach to the carton rolls with rubber bands or glue. You can then attach yarn for a nice neck strap.

*Slithering Snakes: Not all snakes are scary! The kids will love making their own boas and rattlesnakes that they can wear around their necks. You can ask each kid to bring their own necktie, or purchase some from a thrift store. Let them open the large end of the tie and carefully cut the threads apart. Have them stuff each tie with cotton balls (or any other materials you may have), making sure to push it all the way up to the skinny end. Afterwards, sew the end up or glue it shut with a hot glue gun. Have the kids decorate their snakes with felt, glitter, wiggly eyes, buttons, etc.

*Make-a-Critter: this is a great activity that let's the kids make up a whole new animal. Take a large sheet of white construction paper and hold it so that the shorter side is towards you. Then fold it in half (short side to short side) and then in half again (again short side to short side). Unfold the paper, and spread it out on the table, then give the kids crayons or markers and have one kid draw an animal head in the top rectangle of the paper. When the kid finishes, fold back the top rectangle so it's hidden from view, and only the three remaining rectangles are showing. Then pass the paper to the next kid to draw the body and arms of an animal in the next rectangle. Repeat, having the next kids draw legs in the third rectangle, and feet in the fourth rectangle. When they've finished, unfold the paper to see what new animal the kids have created. You can pass around more than one piece of paper at the same time, so the kids can create a whole bunch of new animals.

There's nothing better than baking, sculpting (and eating) a long-necked giraffe cake as the centerpiece for the safari theme party.

Use three boxes of cake mix to bake in two 13x9 cake pans. Then cut out the following shapes from the baked cakes to sculpt the giraffe (looking at a picture of a giraffe while you do this will help):

*Giraffe face: Rectangle 10.5" long by 6" across
*Neck: Rectangle 7" long by 4.5" across
*Ears: Leaf shaped 4.5" long by 3" across
*Antlers: 2.5" by 0.5" across-cut two out and also two round pieces for the top of the antlers

Assemble the cake on a cake board wrapped in tin foil. Then frost the giraffe with yellow icing. Then with chocolate icing make random circular shapes for giraffe patterns that you can trace with chocolate chips. Also make two brown circles on each antler and add chocolate frosting inside the ears. you can also make bangs on top of the giraffe's face with either chocolate frosting or chocolate chips in rows. For the eyes take two Oreo cookies, pull them apart, then put the side with the white filling facing upwards. Inside the white filling add a chocolate ball or chocolate chips. The nostrils can be made of 2" circles of black shoestring licorice. For the mouth use a thin piece of red shoestring licorice.

Here are some cool safari theme party food ideas. (You can create a signpost with all the sorts of arrows pointing to the foods and describing what they are…)

*Animal-Striped Pizzas (you can be very creative with this one by making your own pizzas using alternates of white, yellow and orange cheese strips to look like animal print. You can also add toppings in alternates, like a row of olives in a diagonal, then a row of cheese, another row of olives, etc. for tasty animal stripes.)
*Pigs in blankets (hot dogs)
*French Flies (fries)
*Peanut Butter and Jellyphant sandwiches (Cut these out with an elephant cookie cutter)
*Toad-slaw (coleslaw)
*Crocodile eye balls and guts (yes, I know this sounds gross, but the kids love this spaghetti with meatballs.)
*Monkey Meal (Peel a banana and put it in a hot dog roll…. Then spread peanut butter and maybe a bit of honey and you'll be amazed at how tasty the monkey sandwich is!)
*Snake dogs (Make multiple diagonal cuts into each hot dogs, not quite all the way through, and fill the slits with ketchup, mustard and relish. The kids love eating these "snakes".)

Safari Theme Party Drinks:

*Alligator-ade (green Gatorade!!)
*Swamp Juice - Kids will be mystified when they witness your power to turn ordinary green Gatorade into a steamy swamp! Start with green punch and after you've placed a filled glass in front of each kid, add a few Pop Rocks candies to each one. Since this candy is processed with carbon dioxide, it will crackle, pop, and split when it comes into contact with the green punch. AWESOME!

Tip: Make frozen ice cubes with raisins in them so it looks like flies are floating in their safari juices. Kids just love this!

Safari Theme Party Treats:

*Unshelled peanuts
*Gummy worms
*Animal crackers
*Animal fruit snacks
*Any kind of animal-shaped foods
*Fire Ants (plain or chocolate covered raisins)

A great safari theme party absolutely needs cool favors that'll have the kids going wild! HERE's the best place to get a whole bunch of miniature safari trinkets to use as favors (such as little compasses, little flashlights, mini cameras, wild animal bouncing balls, gummy worms, animal crackers, plastic sunglasses, animal tattoos, and much more).

Take a look at this complete page filled with the coolest Safari party games , such as Monkey See Monkey Do, Elephant Peanut Race, Animal Charades, Giraffe Stretch and more. You'll also find several VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) party time.

Take your coolest party ideas, add a few colorful photos and you've got a "PARTY TALE ".

Many of the ideas you'll find on this site have been sent to us by people around the world. These people are an inspiration to this site, helping make this site an inspiration to others.

Once your party is over, we'd love for you to send us your own PARTY TALE and we'll create your very own theme party page and photo gallery that's hosted on our site! (Family, friends and just about anybody will be able to find inspiration from YOUR CHILD'S birthday party AND comment on YOUR ideas!)

Here's a chance for you to peek at other people's Safari theme PARTY TALES and find even more ideas:

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Throw the Coolest Kid Safari Theme Party