The only guidance I had is that Tommy wanted an "animal party." Well, to Pinterest I went! There weren't a lot of ideas for an older kid's animal-themed party, but I was able to find a few Paw Patrol, Farm and Wild Kratts party ideas that we adapted to our needs. My mom and I had also seen the cutest hedgehog cake at Safeway before Halloween, so I called them and ordered one. Friday, my mom and I ran around gathering all the trappings for the party. The older boys and grandparents were so helpful getting it all set up, and Zac, Ben and Josh each took a game to lead, so it really came off pretty easily considering that it had been in planning for only 5 days.
We bought 8 animal Beanie Boos--these super cute stuffed animals that are pretty inexpensive and universally loved by kids. The kids each picked a number out of a bowl and that was their order for choosing a pet to "adopt." Then they decorated brown-paper party boxes as houses for their new pets and made collars by threading letter beads onto pipe cleaners. The kids took longer with this part of the party than I thought they would, really getting into the details, so we ended up needing to cut out one of our games: Stomp the Snake, where the kids would have a long balloon tied to their ankle and they'd try to pop each other's balloons before theirs was popped. Last balloon still inflated wins. The good thing about bumping this game was that I didn't have to seek counseling for balloon-popping PTSD, and there were a bunch of already inflated "snakes" that Ben was able to twist into balloon dogs and giraffes for the kids to take home.
After a lunch of hot dogs, grapes and Jungle Juice (green Hawaiian punch), we sang "Happy Birthday" and dished up the hedgehog cake. Cutting into that adorable cake was a little traumatic for all of us.
Three games followed. First was Catch a Tiger by the Tail led by Zac, where the kids had to hold each other's hands and the kids on each end were either the tiger's head or the tail. The head had to try to tag the tail, all while still holding tight to the chain of hands. All the kids had a chance to be both the head and the tail. Next, they played Feed the Elephants led by Ben. They were divided into two teams and each child got one minute to throw as many peanuts into the "elephants' mouths" as they could in that minute. The mouths were buckets with elephant heads taped over them, drawn by Adam, our resident cartoonist. The team that fed the most peanuts to their elephants (thrown the most peanuts into the bucket) after all four kids on the team had had their turn won. Last, they played Herd the Zebras led by Josh. We found zebra-striped balloons and used two brooms left over from a quidditch match. Once again, the kids were divided into teams. They had to run out into the herd of zebra balloons and sweep two balloons into the corral before passing on their broom to their teammate. The team that had all their players sweep two balloons into the corral first, won. We finished the day with presents.
The party was so fun and the two hours flew by! It was really nice to have all the extra grandparent and brother helping hands. Tommy had a great time celebrating his 8th birthday with his friends and loved the whole shebang. Party success! Hooray!
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