Sweet Everythings Photography {Blog}: Wild Party at the Zoo!

For Anna's 4th birthday, she requested a party at the zoo. I didn't want the cliche zoo animal decor that you see in all the party stores, so I instead went with a black/white zebra print paired with a fun palette of fuschia, turquoise & lime green for my little girly girl.

After 3 years of parties at home, I have to admit that I was kind of relieved to be off the hook from all of the hassle that comes with preparing for a house party, but I quickly realized that parties outside of the home - while convenient in the cleanup department - have lots of restrictions that make creativity a challenge. We could not hang anything, we could not have anything inflatable (including balloons), and we only had 15 minutes to setup & tear down. Not to mention the fact that we had to haul all of our party supplies to the party area in the back of the chilren's zoo all on our own (4 wagons and lots of arms!)

Some of the families arrived at the party pavillion a little early, and everyone was so nice to pitch in and help with getting things setup (which I felt bad about, but really appreciated!).

Here's a quick shot of the full table all finished. . .

The kids were kept busy with fabulous face painting, foam animal mask crafts, their very own lunch box filled with "animal food", delicous cake/cupcakes, and the grand finale: a group ride on the zoo carousel!

The pavillion was in the children's zoo, so they were also able to take advantage of all of the other fun things the children's zoo offered like a playground and a petting zoo. We chose not to disperse everyone into the main zoo during the party because of the 2 hour time limit, so some families arrived early to check out all of the animals.

The birthday girl had so much fun and was so excited to see all of her friends that made it to the party. There was a bit of a meltdown when the announcement was made that the zoo was closing (we had the last party time slot), but I'll take that as a sign that she loved her party and just didn't want it to end!

* Note: This party was also featured on the Birthday Girl Blog earlier this week! It's a great little site for party inspiration if you want to mosey on over and check it out.