Crocodile Hunter - 6 years

At the age of 6, my son decided he wanted to be like “Steve Irwin” the “Crocodile Hunter” when he grew up! He would dive onto my lounge furniture, pretending to capture a croc! He played with plastic (thank goodness) snakes, and called every bug a “little nipper”! So of course, the birthday party had to be a “Crocodile Hunter party”. I must say, of all the parties, I think I had the most fun doing this one and I had lots of help from the birthday boy! The invitation was done on our trusty computer as well as the colouring page and the “how to draw a croc” page. Both these pages were inserted into the croc boxes to take home.

The decorating was also a lot of fun! My sister is brilliant when it comes to “wall art”, and so she helped us with the big croc (see pic). To make your own large wall decorations, you will need to borrow/rent an overhead projector from you local school. Trace the small picture you have onto an overhead projector sheet. Then put a large sheet of paper on the wall, and project the picture onto the sheet of paper. Adjust the projector until the picture on the wall is the right size, trace the outline. Using paint you can do the final touches. My son enjoyed helping me to paint mr. croc, and the more messy it became the better and more authentic it looked! Using Prestik we stuck it to the wall behind the party table. We then surrounded it with ivy and turned the party area into a bit of an ivy jungle. We took a very “real looking” cobra and hung it from the chandelier above the party table and added a few plastic bugs into the jungle.

Using his favourite puzzle, we were able to scan the picture and have the perfect cake! Then we made sugar biscuits and cut them in crocodile shapes. We iced them green with brown chocolate pieces to look like scales. The partyware, cups, plates, serviettes etc.. were different shades of green. I had found all kids of “buggy” sweets and they were left on the table to nibble until lunch. We have always tried over the years to have the parties close to lunch time, so that we can have “proper” food to eat. We again decided to braai various kinds of sausage to suite the various diets. The “boerewors rolls” were once again well received! To entertain the guests, my son and I had made a crocodile piñata out of paper-mache (using DLTK's Paper Mache Alligator Craft files from the internet). We filled it with sweets, and the kids loved trying to hit it open! We also had a treasure hunt to find various animals & bugs (yes - plasitic ones!). These they were allowed to take home with their party boxes. To make sure we got rid of all the energy, we again had a jumping castle – and this one looked like a crocodile!

Bernadine - CAPE TOWN