animal theme party

MAX’S COW PARTY!

My little baby turned 2!! Eek! His favorite thing in the whole wide world (besides his big bro) are COWS. He has an entire backpack full of cow figurines that attend all of our outings. With every person he meets, he tells them about cows or the one time he pet a cow or cows say moo… I could go on. There was no other choice but to make him a cute little cow party and celebrate with family!
Cow PBJ’s, farm veggies, and cow cheese! I just used a cow cookie cutter to cut out the bread and black food dye for the spots. Just dab a corner of a paper towel in the food dye and dot on the bread.
 Milk bar anyone? Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.
 This is what I call a deconstructed cow cake… easy peasy. I used pink frosting and pink jelly beans for the udder 🙂
I cut out squiggles of black paper for the table decoration.
I had some leftover tattoo favors from Max’s little preschool buddies that I used as table decoration. Moooo Max is 2! We do custom packaging like this in our Etsy shop!
 Our party hat DIY is HERE. Just decorate with black squiggly shapes and a pink “2”.
 Max’s “aunt” Ashley got him this bouncy cow for his birthday! He obviously LOVED it!
I made Max his tee shirt with the tattoo image printed on iron-on transfer paper.
Sources – click below:
Letter balloons by Northstar Balloons
– L

FEATURED: ROWEN’S SHARK PARTY

We’ve been bugging our crazy-talented friend, Shara, for pictures of Rowen’s Shark Party since we walked through the door of the party… and had our mind’s blown. Modern, clean, fun, creative touches EVERYWHERE. Crafty in the coolest way, clever menu, fun games for kiddos…so good.
Shara used two slightly different colors of crepe paper and twisted them to create “water”. She hung all the sharks from string so they would appear to float on top of the waves. Genius.
 One of our favorite things of the party was this shark wreath! Shara spray painted a foam wreath core gray then hot glued plastic sharks (here) all around to simulate a shark attack feeding frenzy!
The fins on the mantel were pin-on fins for the kids to wear. Shara made them using stiffened felt and a template found here.
 I mean… really
Cake topper here

 Menu:
Shark Bait sandwiches (tuna salad)
Shark Fin sandwiches (cheese triangles)
Slow Swimmer Salsa and Sea Algae Guacamole with Fins (blue tortilla chips)
Shark Teeth (Bugles)
Whale and Goldfish crackers
Vegetarian Shark Food (crudites)
Watermelon Shark fruit salad (carved by Shara’s husband after she showed him pictures on Pinterest and convinced him it would be easy! Ha!)
Sea Dogs (hot dogs)
Great White Sugar Cookies
Fish Kabobs (gummy fish and shark candies on a stick)
Life Preservers (mini sugar donuts with red gel icing)
Jaws cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla whipped frosting and gummy sharks
Shark Attack cupcakes (blue velvet cake with coconut cream cheese icing and fondant fins)
Chum Punch
Shark Infested Lemonade
 Shara’s favorite things about the sharks hung from the ceiling were the shadows they created when the light was turned on. The slight movement of the sharks and the big shadows made it look like there were actually sharks swimming around the room.
Party Activities: 
Shark Dress Up Bucket- shark, sailor, and captain costumes, beach ball, surfboard, sunglasses, flower leis, blow up shark, beach paraphemalia
Air swimmer remote-controlled helium shark (Amazon)
Pink the Fin on the Shark (Amazon)
Make Your Own Shark Game craft station
Let’s Go Fishing Game
Finding Nemo Movie
 
Ari LOVED this activity… we still have his shark on the fridge!
 Favor buckets: “shark tank” bubbles, “under the sea” coloring book, shark stickers and tattoos, bag of shark and fish gummy candies, shark squirter toy, fish stamps, sunglasses, and glow bracelet
Invitation, favor tags, and thank you notes here
Gummy fish kabob!
Big Birthday Boy Rowen!
Thank you for sharing your party with us, Shara! We loved every minute of it (oh and so did our kids!!). 

ARI’S ANIMAL THEMED PARTY: PART 3

PARTY FAVORS
I filled these “feed buckets” with all animal themed goodies:
I found all animal/insect gummies from our local candy store Honey’s Vintage Sweets! Sharks, pigs, fish, frogs, and worms. The only kind of animals I’ll eat 🙂
I made these “farm fresh egg [shakers]” with easter eggs, rice, and hot glue. Kids go bananas for egg shakers!  
ENTERTAINING THE LITTLES
Decorate your own binoculars: cut a paper towel roll in half, staple together, and punch holes for the yarn strap.
This was my favorite game I did for the kids. I found these colorful peanuts at Joannes and then put lots of little plastic animals inside. The kids used the shovels to dig for animals, and I’m telling you, they were totally fixated on finding the animals! I left this out for Ari to play with for weeks after the party, and he was so into it every. single. time. Keep your littles busy! Though, obviously keep in mind these are choking hazards so make sure your kiddos are supervised. 
Equally as big of a hit as the animal dig was when I covered our coffee table with butcher paper and let the kids go crazy with crayons! Again, I kept this up for weeks, just changing out the paper when it was covered completely with doodles. The adults got really into it too! 
and lastly…
THE INVITATION
Designed by the talented Lauren of Rock Paper Scissors
See the rest of Ari’s animal themed party
Part 1 – All the details HERE
Part 2 – Tutorials HERE
We would LOVE to see what you come up with for your animal party! Tag #loveandlion on instagram or twitter, or you can post on our facebook page. 
-L

ARI’S ANIMAL THEMED PARTY: PART 2

I wanted to share all of my DIY’s with you from Ari’s animal themed birthday party. These ideas are pretty simple and easy, but when you put them all together, it looks sort of impressive (if I do say so myself!).
PAINTED PLASTIC ANIMALS
These little dudes were my biggest project. I collected tons of plastic animals from craft stores and dollar stores and spray painted them solid colors to make the look more cohesive and modern. The easiest way I found to paint the animals was to put packing tape sticky side up on a piece of cardboard (see below) and spray paint from every angle. They take a while to dry and require multiple coats, so plan ahead!
PARTY HATS
I LOVE how the party hats turned out! First unfold a store-bought party hat and trace it onto black paper. Cut it out a little larger than the traced line you made. Put the hat back together and tape the black paper around the hat. I cut the plastic animals in half and used a hot glue gun to secure each half to the front and back of the hat. For the pompom on top, I fringed some white crepe paper and glued it into seam of the hat.
ANIMAL CUTLERY
I have to say, the animal cutlery was the biggest hit with everyone, but these were so. time. consuming. Use fine sand paper and sand off the finish on the forks where the animal will go. Make sure there’s no spray paint on the middle of the animals, in other words, spray paint the animals first before cutting. Use Gorilla Wood Glue (super glue and hot glue does not work!) and hold on to these suckers until the glue dries. This will take about 3-5 minutes PER fork. But I mean… look how cute they turned out! 
DIY FRINGY TOPPERS
Once you get the hang of it, they’re super fast and easy. Use these for drink stirrers or cake toppers or whatever! These pretties brighten up any party.
PHOTO BOOTH
Time consuming? Yes. Easy? Ridiculously. 
All you need is a roll of butcher paper or bulletin board paper, craft paint, and a wine cork. For the photo booth backdrop, I measured neurotically so the dots would be even, but for the tablecloth below, I stamped randomly.
 More cork stamping! Paper mache letters hung on the door. 
CHALKBOARD TRAYS
I bought inexpensive silver plastic trays and spray painted the boarder with the same paint I used on the animals. When dry, paint the center with two layers of chalkboard paint. Easy!
For Part 1 of Ari’s animal themed party pictures click HERE
Part 3 HERE
Party Favors / Games for the kiddos / Details
-L