Fab Fete: How to Throw a Party Animal Themed Kid’s Birthday
We’ve jokingly called Juliet a party animal ever since she was born because she has been a night owl going to bed anywhere between 10pm (nowadays) to as late as midnight during her first year of life. So it was only fitting (and such a cute unisex party theme) to make “party animal” her 2nd birthday theme. Get inspired as this post shows you how to incorporate the party animal theme into everything from the fashions to the decor to the entertainment to the food!
Let’s start with the fashion. Juliet wore a bear necklace and (sometimes) wore / carried her lion backpack (perfect since her birthday invite introduced her as “Leo the lion”. I wore my party animal necklaces from Mustard Dandelion’s cute Etsy shop with my leopard Banana Republic heels.
The birthday invite (from Paperless Post) encouraged guests to come dressed in their wildest fashions.
Juliet’s fashionable friends did NOT disappoint!
We were happy to see lots of animal print, fur, animal faces, and bunny ears! My friends are always up for a fun fashion challenge and luckily, they’re as crazy committed to themed parties as I am. I find that it just adds another level of excitement, enthusiasm and involvement into a party. How cute are they all?!!
The party animal decor consisted of a yellow, orange and baby blue color theme. And animals were incorporated wherever possible. (masks, plates, centerpieces, signage, and stickers for example). Here’s the gift table that sat conveniently right next to the entrance’s coat check-in.
Those 3 teddy bears are actually bears from my own childhood. I just added the ribbon and party hats to align them more with the theme. I used them at Juliet’s 1st birthday party too and love that they represent daddy, mommy and Juliet.
Underneath the table, we stored all of Juliet’s presents. And on top of the table, we featured the favor bags which included: stickered go go squeezes, organic gummy bunnies, stickered Ziploc full of animal crackers and goldfish, a rubber duck, a book about animals and animal stickers. Additionally, each child went home with one of the giant, yellow balloons featured at the kids table.
The framed sign and favor bag stickers were custom created with my direction by That Party Chick , the silk flowers were bought on sale at Michaels, the riser was a diaper box that I covered in fabric and ribbon and the white topper is a shower curtain that I only use for special events. If you follow my blog, you’ve seen it re-purposed in 3 other events. And the yellow tulle fabric is just taped directly onto the table’s perimeter.
Every kids’ birthday should feature some photos. I incorporated photos of Juliet holding different stuffed animals and/or costumed as an animal herself and created a consistent look and feel by printing them all the same size, posting them to card stock and adding a label to each one to continue the animal theme across the mirrored wall. 
The food station was split into the sweets and snacks tables. The sweets table included:
- a macaron tower from The Macaron Cafe
- frosted animal cookies from Elinis
- organic animal cookies
- bunny chocolates
- organic bunny gummy pouches
- vanilla cupcakes
- candy balls
- animal shaped suckers with “happy birthday Juliet!” stickered on the back
- yellow gummy bears
- stickered applesauces
The snack side of the table featured:
- snake sub (with olive eyes and red Twizzler tongue)
- safari salad
- monkey food (bananas)
- hungry hippo hummus and veggies
- bear nutella sandwiches
- coffees teas, waters and jungle juices
- parrot pineapples
And the entertainment consisted of:
- musical performers singing animal themed songs (Think “in the jungle”, “itsy bitsy spider”)
- Pin the Tail on the Elephant
- stuffed animals, animal books and puzzles and animals that you could ride on
And the animal decor included animal masks for the kids, plastic animal centerpieces (which you can read more about in my earlier post), and animal chair covers which were a big hit.
It was a lively party that kids and adults all enjoyed. And Juliet was so happy to celebrate with all her little friends. It was the first year she really understood what it meant to have a birthday. I’ll always remember her cute voice saying, “I’m TWO! Happy birthday!!”
Every Korean first birthday features dol towers like these. Traditional ones are made with black and cream colored beans but that didn’t match my decor so I took the liberty of making mine with pink and green candy (along with paper towel rolls, and a glue gun). Gettin’ crafty here! Before you know it, I’ll be scrapbooking and weaving baskets! Also, I chose not to follow the usual tradition of placing these at the head table, or in my case, the dessert table and instead sat them next to the children’s art easel area so that section would tie into the rest of the party decor.
