Styling and DIY: Alexis Teasdale
Photography: Eric Teoh
I’ll admit, this isn’t a party theme I thought I’d get to do, because until this year my kids have been scared of everything from puppies to petting zoos.
But just recently Teddy decided he loves them and declared this years theme to be ‘ALL ANIMALS.’
‘Cool’, I say. ‘So, jungle animals you mean?’
‘No. Jungle, under-water, farm-yard, Australian, insects… all the animals!’ he says.
LOL.
And so, the theme became ‘Party Animals’ with all creatures great and small invited.
I started by looking for a petting zoo that could come to our house. I found a few, but thanks to really excellent Facebook reviews I settled on Farmer Darcy’s Travelling Farm. She rescues animals, so all the gorgeous critters that come to your party have been saved by Darcy and they are just the sweetest, sweetest things! Don’t EVEN get me started on Michael the Alpaca. I’m flat out in love.
She also brought goats, a calf, bunnies, guinea pigs, a lamb, a piglet and more. They set up the animals in a lovely white picket-fenced pen and helped the kids and grown ups hold and feed them. It was so much fun, and the kids all loved it. I can’t recommend them enough.
Next I started ordering the wares. I knew Meri Meri Party had the cutest animal themed plates and napkins and I went online to Invite Me to stock up. Then I found their Kiki Sprinkles gorgeous perspex cake toppers! Had to have them! It meant that I could go simple with the cake because the toppers would bring all the jazz. More on that later!
While the petting zoo was the main event, I did want to add some extra activities for kids who might be a bit scared of the animals. Basically Teddy until about five minutes ago. Ha!
My dad had created an awesome treasure hunt last Easter, so I took that idea and made my own ‘Safari Bingo’. We have a nice big front yard, that’s actually a bit wild (read: we’re no good at gardening) which meant we could easily ‘hide’ the animal faces for the kids to find. I bought plastic safari hats and binoculars from Discount Party Supplies which were a hit. I usually like to get an entertainer so parents can relax, but this was a great compromise because the kids were bigger this year and happily ran around looking here and there in their own time.
Behind the safari set up was the pool. I was so bummed that our (very ugly) winter pool cover was on (it’s SO hard to take off.) I was racking my brain on how to avoid it being such an eyesore (we need to reno our fence too.) Then I thought, it kind of looks swampy. And the fence looks zoo-y. Just add inflatable crocs! They looked right at home in the water that settled on top of the cover (cheers winter.) They even moved around thanks to the wind, and I won’t lie, it was a touch scary. LOL.
There was a ‘paint an animal’ set up for the crafty types (that was me as a kid) and the sets from Kmart only cost $5 for a pack of 10 animals plus paint and brushes. Bargain! I had a few smocks on hand too, cos you know, #kidspartylife.
I’d seen a fun toy ‘Adopt a puppy’ idea on Pinterest and thought it was too sweet not to use! I was trying to find an inexpensive way to use animal toys because I had 30 kids coming, then found a bulk pack of 50 mini ones online which was way cheaper than buying individual bigger ones. As a bonus, these little cuties come with names, so it really was like adopting a pet!
Now, I’ve made the mistake before of creating favours like this without lollies. Do NOT be fooled, kids want a lolly bag no matter how cute your take-home treat is. I found some great animal themed lollies everywhere from Coles to Kmart to Sweet Lolly Station. Keep your eye out for the more unusual animals like pugs and jellyfish – I even found chicken feet and eggs! – but of course there are always snakes and frogs at every supermarket. Plus it was a great excuse to include Furry Friends, a childhood fave of mine!
When it came to organising the food, I had LOADS of fun. I started by coming up with catchy names then thought about what kind of kids food would match.
I also knew my limitations (hello two kids and a newborn!) so I did some outsourcing. Kath from On The Table Events created the ‘Lion Mane Munchies’ veggie platter which was the only snack I sourced from Pinterest because was SO clever and healthy! Kath also made up the fruit salad which we turned into ‘Coral Cups’ with home-made The Festive Co fish toppers.
I went for some easy wins with Crocodile Teeth (Doritos) Tiger Tails (Cheetos) Fairybread Butterflies and ‘Worms in a hole’ using mini donuts and sour worms.
Poppy’s Pantry whipped up the chocolate and honey crackles for me and I made little toppers to transform them into ‘Bunny Poo’ and ‘Birds Nests’! She also made the ‘Sea-Side Sandwiches’ for me, using some great cookie cutters. Poppy – or as I call her, The Platter Queen – also did the adults grazing board which was beyond delicious and completely smashed by the end of the party. If you can, having separate grown ups food is always a nice touch.
I also made ‘Lady bugs’ using pre-made icing and sugar eyes from Spotlight, but sadly I did them the night before and the icing melted in the fridge. If you attempt these, pipe on melted chocolate instead or do icing right before the party.
I also couldn’t resist ordering these DIVINE cookies from Hello Naomi, after I saw them on her Insta AND she called them ‘Party Animals’. Hello, meant to be!
I have made a few of the kids cakes over the years, BUT I am also excellent at prioritising. Cakes take time and with the amount of DIY and styling I do, often there is no time to make a cake the day or night before so I mostly outsource.
A couple of weeks before the party I was wheeling around Coles when I spotted their $25 pink drip cake. Apparently it’s famous online, I had no idea! I asked Teddy what he thought of a pink cake because he’s obsessed with blue, but he loved it – smart boy. Pink is the best! So I figured I could pick one of those up a few days before the party and pop on the amazing toppers I found at Invite Me. Then when I had to bake Teddy’s school cupcakes I found the coolest Queen Fine Foods sprinkles and Betty Crocker pre-made icing so I figured I could pipe some of that on his cake too.
On the morning of the party I was feeding the baby just as we had to decorate the cake so Kath stepped in and transformed the $25 sponge into an actual masterpiece!! It was meant to be. I shall always be ‘feeding the baby’ at cake decorating time from now on. Hee hee.
She used the Betty C icing BUT did add some dry icing mix to it because it’s quite a wet texture. She piped that around the edge, filled the middle with a mix of three sprinkles and for kicks, added sprinkles to the base of the cake stand too. Then with the beautiful toppers it was done in minutes and looked bloody awesome!
The best part was how good everyone said it tasted and I took great delight in telling the story!
*For the record, I am a total cake lover and appreciator and ADORE cake artists. This is just a great hack for time and cash poor mums.
Signage is one of my favourite parts of styling an event. It’s always those kind of details that personalise a party. I designed all the signs to mix and match together and printed some on foam board via VistaPrint which is delivered directly to your home. I totally recommend printing on foam board if you can. It’s so much easier than using cardboard which can get crumpled pre-party, and often paper glued onto board will buckle before the big day.
I also made some signs that explained the games to parents and directed them to take the favours home. It’s always hard to catch the host at the end of the party if there are lots of kids running around, so making extra signs for parents mean they wont hesitate to grab a party bag for their kiddos before the tantrums begin.
When you’re coming up with a party theme (or your kid is!) it’s always handy to use what you already have. Luckily, the boys had plenty of animal toys already, so I pulled them out and couldn’t resist making them our original The Festive Co Custom Confetti hats to wear too.
Then I just went nuts with balloons on a big ‘ol sideboard we have and the styling was done.
What a day! So much fun. And we got SUNSHINE after a week of rain. Just marvellous.
Happy birthday to our Teddy Bear!
Or Teddy Tiger, rather.
