I love that my daughter’s birthdays are two weeks apart! It means planning just ONE huge family birthday party each year!  This year we decided to do a Zoo Themed Birthday Party, I’d like to share with you some of the highlights, and some of the things I would never do again.

I went a little crazy with the decorations… That is one of the things I’ll probably never do again.  What I discovered is that when you cram 45 people in your home, no one sees anything but other people!  All the decorations were just a hassle to put up, take down and a drain on the birthday budget.  I ordered safari balloons, inflatable animals and other zoo themed decorations from OrientalTrading.com.  Great site, but that was $150 that I could have kept in my pocket and no one would even have noticed!

I decided to make zoo themed cupcakes, cake push pops and purchase a zebra picture cake.  I think I may have gone overboard on the cake as well, but if your going to go crazy on something, I think the food is the place to do it!  The cupcakes weren’t overly tasty (I can’t bake to save my life) but the were adorable and  really easy to make! I’ll add a link to the instructional video I used to make my cupcakes here!

Of course the whole reason for the Zoo Themed Birthday was the fact that we hired Zoo2You to come and entertain our guests! This was by far the best money spent, and I wholeheartedly recommend it for your next birthday party! The show was AMAZING and the price was even better!  Mike brought a wonderful assortment of lizards, snakes, a tortoise, a tarantula, chinchillas, rabbits, a beautiful African fox, rats and a KANGAROO!  Yes, a real live kangaroo was hopping around in my backyard…coolest thing ever. The show was also educational and Mike really engaged both the children and the adults in the show.  The show was an hour long and for only $200, it was money well spent.

Check out the Zoo2You website here for more information.  This particular one covers the Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent are but there are Zoo2Yous all over the place!

I would do just about anything for my two beautiful girls, and that includes losing my mind to give them a birthday party they will hopefully remember for years to come… so how can I top a kangaroo for next year? Maybe Disney World! Mickey Mouse, here we come!