Alex
turned two last week and we celebrated with a zoo-themed birthday party. We
rented out a space at a NYC park (in Riverside Park) called the Hippo Playhouse.
The space was perfect for a bunch of toddlers.
I will be
posting about the decorations, cupcake prep, etc. later, but wanted to give an
overview of his party.
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Here is
the room before anything was set up.
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The park
where the Hippo Playhouse is.
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We set out
tails and masks for the kids (these were a hit).
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In keeping
with the color scheme of orange, brown and and green, we used green paper
plates, brown napkins and then I added a touch of orange with bowls of
goldfish. We also had 18 balloons in the same color scheme.
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Here, you
can see that Alex’s sweatshirt (courtesy of his Mimzy), has the same
fabric/print that I used on the birthday sign and gift bags.
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| The first guest arrives. |
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Aunt
Amanda helping Alex with his mask.
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Alex’s
cousins, Luca and Eva, getting into character.
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We had
animal beach balls that we blew up and left around for the kids to toss (no
damage to worry about with these).
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Family
Alex is a
lucky boy—he had three grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, one great-aunt, two
cousins, two honorary aunts, and two honorary cousins there.
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| Alex’s cousin Eva |
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My mom and
dad
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Alex and
Andy
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Aunt
Amanda and Busza
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Mimzy,
Uncle Kyle and Eva
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Story Hour with Animals
In keeping
with our zoo theme, to start the party off, we had a story hour with animals.
There was a story read about the animal (for example, The Little Green Turtle), and then an animal was brought out that
was in the story (in this case, a turtle). The kids could touch the animals and
they learned a bit about them.
The six
animals that were presented were:
1. Turtle
2. Snake
3. Frog
4. Skink (large lizard-like
animal)
5. Gecko (this one was a
rare gecko, so we were lucky to have it)
6. A hairless rat (despite
what one may think, these animals are actually extremely smart and friendly)
The kids
were so excited to see what animal was coming out next. It really started the
party off on the right foot.
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All the
animals in their cages, ready to go. All the animals came from Fauna, an exotic
pet shop on the Upper West Side.
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Ready to
get the story hour started.
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Checking
out the frog and gecko.
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He was a
little afraid of the skink.
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The snake—I
actually touched/held this, and I am terrified of snakes (but trying not to
have Alex be the same)!
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Music
Of course,
no party can be complete without music! For this portion, we had one of Alex’s
music teachers come to sing with the kids. He is fantastic with children, and they loved him and his music!
We sang,
we danced, we danced some more—it truly made the party feel celebratory.
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Alex checking out the guitar
(he does this in music class too)!
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Cupcakes
I made two kinds of cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla) and decorated them in four different ways (lions, pandas, monkeys and elephants). The kids really loved being able to choose their favorite animal. I will write a separate blog post about how I did these.
Wrapping Up
Everyone got a thank you bag at
the end, along with a balloon, a mask and tail, and an animal beach ball. I
will write more about these later, so you can see how I put them together and
what went in them.
Alex had a great time at the
party, which is obviously the most important part. There is nothing better than
planning and working to create something that your child loves. It made me so
happy—cannot wait for next year’s planning to begin.
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Relaxing at home after the
party.
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