10 years old!  TEN.  How did that happen?  Just yesterday I sat confused and shocked as my husband prayed for our first born daughter to begin breathing after she came into the world with silence.  I’ve never been so happy to hear a baby cry in my entire life.

How could that have been 10 years ago?

She has changed my life so much, this beautiful girl, and I am excited to see what life holds for her.  Will she become a dolphin trainer?  An archaeologist?  A mom like me?  It is so interesting to watch her interests and passions change as she grows up.

Her special request for her 10th birthday was to have a party centered around animals and their habitats.  I love that sweet compassionate side of her.

Animal Habitat Invitations

We started by enclosing these adorable tiny 3D animals puzzles in our invitations.  They were easy to pop into the mail on our way out the door.

(Yes, we were crazy enough to schedule a big vacation right between birthdays that are only two weeks apart. In a weird way, it was kinda’ nice – I didn’t even bother taking down the folding tables because nobody was home to care.

Animal Habitat Decorations

Animal habitats may not be a common party theme, but there are lots of teachers who use it for their classroom, so I switched gears a bit and found some great posters at Oriental Trading.  The kids had a fun time punching them out and hanging them all over the house.  We ended up with a savannah in the dining room, a rain forest in the entryway, an ocean on the stairs, arctic in the bathroom, and desert in the living room.  All of the stuffed animals were happily lined up in their proper environment, including the pandas, who were declared to need  their own space near my poor dog’s dish.  She had to walk  a bit sideways to get past all of those staring eyes each time she needed a drink.  :)

The addition of a few vines, and some animal print balloons was the extent of our decorating.

Animal Habitat Games

We had 21 kids at the party, so we needed to divide-and-conquer.  They were given animal stickers as they walked in which we used to identify teams.

Team Arctic went to the dining room (oops, the savannah) to make balloon animals.  While they were waiting for adult help, the younger ones cut out Wild Kratt paper dolls.  A nice freebie from the PBSkids.org site.

Team Jungle was sent to the desert.  We took our cue from the Wild Kratts and earned creature power disks (aka.  Trading coins ) for completing each of our habitat tasks.

• Ocean – throw a rescue ring to a dolphin (a repeat request from last year’s dolphin party)
• Arctic – keep an animal warm by balancing its coin on top of your head all the way to the fireplace
• Savannah – run like a gazelle relay race
• Jungle – save the coins from the monkeys by dropping them into a jar (keep the one that lands in)

Animal Habitat Craft

Animal Habitat Food

 After coming home from a great vacation we were pretty much burned out on rich food.  When I asked my daughter what she wanted for her special 10th birthday feast she answered … vegetables.  Yes, vegetables.  We truly were starved for some real food.

I was happy to oblige.  A simple turkey sandwiches buffet with lots of veggies, cheeses and flavored mayos to choose from was our main dish.  (Notice I made everyone assemble their own meal.  The kids thought it was fun, but the reality is that I simply couldn’t get myself going yet after lazing around the hotel.)   African couscous was quick and easy to make ahead, and served our 45ish guests easily.  We added a giant green salad and that was it.  Easiest meal plan ever.

 

The cake was supposed to be an ocean, plain, mountain, and desert.  In reality it looks kinda’ like a mush mound, but it tasted really yummy.  My big girl chose a tropical theme for her flavors, so we made a coconut cake and filled it with the yummy toasted coconut caramel that you usually find in German chocolate cake.  It was divine!

Animal Habitat Goodie Bags

The kids took home cute boxes filled with:

• their tie-dyed shirt
• trading coins
• a bag of animal crackers that my big girl made
• a tiny animal shaped cookie cutter and the recipe for the cookies

I was told many times over that this was her BEST PARTY EVER.   (the boys loved the make-your-own-enormous-sandwich buffet, and the girls thought it was great to design their own shirt) It was fun to watch the everyone giggle and play together.  Being 10 is great!

Are you planning a party too?  If so, check out our Pinterest board of fun animal habitat party inspiration!

Our next party is for a soon-to-be 4 year old who wants her imaginary friend to be the center of attention.  This is going to be interesting!