5 Year old Jungle Princess

On Wednesday Oakley turned 5.  I decided that this year she could have a birthday party and go all out and she could invite all of her friends.  Oakley knew right away that she wanted a Lion Safari party and so I got started planning it about month before.  I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into or if I'll do it all again sometime, but besides all of the things I learned not to do at a 5 year old birthday party, I think most of the kids had a pretty good time.  My sister-in-law, Erin stayed to help me out (which ended up being life-saving) and took some pictures for me too. 

It turns out that the "Safari" theme is pretty common for birthday parties and I was able to find decorations at the dollar stores and make a few of my own that weren't too complicated.

I also found a few ideas online.  The Petting Zoo was one of them.  Each kid brought their favorite safari stuffed animal and got to put it in the petting zoo.  At the end of the party the kids got to get their animal and we had a parade outside.

Jungle animal cupcakes!!  Simple and Yummy!

I wanted to have the kids make animal masks to wear, but I never could find or decide on anything.  I found some cute puppet-like animal crafts at Michael's the day before that worked out fine and were fun for the kids.  Just a suggestion: fewer kids and an older age group would work out a little better with something like this. lol.

This was the Jungle parade.  Other games played were Catch a Lion by the Tail (modified jungle version for duck duck goose) and Jungle tag.

In the evening Wray's parents stopped by and we went to McDonalds (Oakley's choice so she could play on the toys) for dinner and then had cake and ice cream back at the house.   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OAKLEY!!!!!!!  I hope it was a fun one.