We held Donovan's second birthday in California this year! Donovan loves animals, especially elephants and jaguars. And he adores Diego, so we had an animal rescue party! It was SO much fun! Ann and John did so much to make the party perfect.And it was great to get to share it with our California friends and family!
Here's the party setup! I cut out a bunch of jungle leaves and hung up tissue paper pinwheels to decorate the food table. Ann and John had this great tent that we used for Rescue Headquarters. It was surrounded with a dozen balloons stuck in the grass with golf tees, which unfortunately did not survive the heat! Donovan got to pop the last one on his own, which made him pretty happy though =) I had painted a map of the world on a canvas that was in front of the tent. I had thought that maybe we'd put the animals in their habitats around the world, but we were too busy for that. Maybe later =)
Eric made an amazing animal obstacle course! Kids leaped like horses, crawled like crocodiles, sprayed water like elephants, jumped through hoops like tigers, burrowed like bunnies, hopped like kangaroos, munched leaves like elephants, balanced like jaguars, and crashed like rhinos. Serenity and Henry especially did the obstacle course over and over the entire day! We nearly ran out of streamers for them to crash through! So cute! I think DZ preferred using the hose as an elephants trunk, and burrowing through the rabbit hole. I made felt animal masks for the kids to wear while they were pretending to be animals =) Some of the adults wore them too! I think Henry wins the award for trying the most masks though!
I sewed a bunch of faces on orange bags for the kids to use as rescue packs as they rescued animals from around the world! Each child got a spotting scope to help them find animals that we'd hidden around the yard. After they saved ten animals, they received rescue patch stickers to show that they were accomplished animal rescuers! Donovan kept saying, I need more animals!!! Henry and Serenity were a great team =) They hung out together a lot! Serenity says she's going to marry Henry by the way, and as Henry told his Mom to choose his wife, that may work out ;)
We had cupcakes with animal figures on top. Donovan loved his elephant and blowing out the candles, the cupcakes... not so much. Fortunately Ann and I made him chocolate shaped like animals for his special treat, and that he loved! Serenity was happy to help with his share of the cupcakes.
The funniest part of the party was when Eric and Jack put on the monkey masks and pretended to be the Bobo brothers from Diego. They capered around the yard until Donovan yelled "Freeze Bobos!" and then they said they were sorry. Donovan loved this so much he's still telling Daddy to "Freeze Bobo!"
The rest of the evening was spent playing baseball, tag, and playing with animal beach balls. They also made zoo necklaces when we needed a break indoors. It was a great party!
Special thanks to Marilyn, Robert and Jack for all the photos! I forgot my camera charger so I only got a few pics before the party started!