Logan's Jungle Party

Since we have a newborn, we thought it would be easier to host Logan's party at home and split it into two parties -a small party for Logan's friends and then the larger family party. What a busy weekend it was! Not sure if it was "easier" but it sure was fun!

Day 1: Toddler Friend Party

Decor: In the guest bathroom we look Kalia's sound machine, turned it to "topical forest" noise and had it playing under the sink -Logan loved this. "Did you hear that, mommy? A bird's in the bathroom!"

The decor was very simple -some vines, hidden wild animals and bright colored paper bunting I made for Daddy's Birthday BBQ last summer.

I made the some boxes for the food and the cupcake stand out of wooden orange crates, my glue gun and a roll of zebra duck tape from Michael's. And I added the cutest new trend: mini-bunting but to the cupcake stand rather than the cake. This way I could refill the stand and it would stay looking adorable!

UPDATE: Check out this post for more details on updating and switching the theme of the cupcake stand...

Food: We ordered pizza and had cupcakes for the kids. The little labels on the basic party food turned it a bit more exotic. Goldfish crackers were piranhas and Cheesies where tiger tails...

I got Vietnamese sandwiches and cut them in half -a favorite of Logan's and a nod to his cousin Katie who has her birthday a day after him. Crafts: The kids decorated coffee tins covered in brown paper with crayons and stickers. Activities: We played "Pin the Nose on the Lion" and a card matching game.
There was a tattoo station with lion and monkey tattoos... Lots of baby cuddling time...

Logan loves drums and has even taken African drum lessons. Rob from Drum!be did an excellent interactive performance. The kids were completely memorized by it and the parents loved it too!

Happy Birthday, Logan!

Day 2: Big Kid Cousin Party

Food: Pretty much the same as the first day but some of the Aunties brought Filipino food and desserts. Lola got us the standard Ube cake. Same one Logan was so interested in at Hunter's birthday party. More cupcakes in the kitchen to feed all our guests. For the toppers I just hot glued these wooden animals from Michael's to a wooden food pick

Crafts: The kids were older at this party so we added a few more things for them to do.

The younger kids enjoyed decorating their own drums.

We hung their artwork on the stairs with animal clothes pins, which they took home with them

After reading this post from A Girl and a Glue Gun about making tie snakes, I decided it sounded easy enough to try with the kids at the party. I laid out the instructions on a poster so that they could follow the steps.Here are a few of them posing proudly with their finished snake! We also brought out a bunch of animal Halloween costumes for the kids to get dressed up in.

And "the drum guy" came again to perform. Logan was very excited about this.

"Is he going to have ants in his pants again?"

Since it was an older crowd, Rob did a great job of making it more hands-on.

From one year old to ninety-five; all the guests had a great time!
Happy 3rd birthday, Logan!