We are thrilled to announce that The Lion King party supplies are coming to Discount Party Supplies any day now. I remember seeing the movie about three times in the theater when it came out, and then enjoying the soundtrack and dvd when they first came out. Yes, I am a Disney fan and The Lion King is still my favorite Disney movie. So I’m very excited that the movie has been rereleased in 2D and 3D for only two weeks and runs until the end of September. Then, the movie comes out on Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray 3D on October 4, 2011. I can’t wait for my kids to enjoy The Lion King for the first time at home on Blu-Ray. If you have a kid’s birthday to plan in the next month or so, then the Lion King is a perfect theme that both boys and girls will go wild for!
Invitations
I admit that I usually buy invitations for parties, since I’m not super crafty with cards. I usually prefer spending more time on planning decorations, food and games than on creating elaborate invitations, but with a Lion King themed party, there are so many easy ways to impress with homemade invitations. One simple and quick idea (that involves minimal craftiness) is to take an image from the movie, such as the one seen above, and print it out in color on nice cardstock paper. Then take a marker and handwrite your invitations. Include all relevant information and make the party sound fun by using phrases like “the mane event” and “a roaring good time” to set the mood. And both girls and boys love nature/jungle themes so you’ll have lots of cubs eager to attend your party! I hate to leave anyone out when planning parties, so I usually just invite everyone from the class or playgroup and make sure that I have games and favors to please boys and girls no matter what the theme of the party is.
Decorations
For a Lion King party, I think it’s really cool to decorate your house like a jungle. None of the other settings from the movie are that easy to recreate. When planning party decorations, I try to take a look through my recycling to see what I can re-use, before purchasing anything. A great example of recycling craftiness for your Lion King party is to cut vines out of brown paper bags to hang all around the house, and attach big green leaves to them. Cut leaves out of green construction paper, or just cut leaves out of the brown paper and color them green. Rent a helium tank and different shades of green, white, orange and yellow balloons or just go to a store selling balloons and have them blown up for you. The green balloons are great as a jungle backdrop. You can take a sharpie and draw animal prints on the white, orange and yellow balloons for extra fun, like black stripes on the white and orange balloons, and spots on the yellow balloons. Green crepe paper streamers hanging from your front door will set a great jungle atmosphere. Your food/cake table will be fun to decorate as well. Use a disposable tablecover (in orange, for example, since Halloween is coming up!) for your food table, and whip out your sharpie again to draw lion paw prints on the tablecover. If you get a plastic tablecover and want to reuse it, just cut paw prints out of black construction paper and tape them to the cover. To further set the atmosphere, prepare a playlist including not only songs from the Lion King soundtrack but other well known wild animal/jungle songs, like the classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Savage Garden’s “The Animal Song.”
Games and Activities
It’s always fun to include the adults at your party in some way. One really fun game for adults to play while the kids are having fun is to have them write down on a piece of paper as many animal-related titles of songs they can think of. The adult or chaperone with the most valid responses at the end of the party wins a prize. It can be something simple like an extra party favor bag or a blue ribbon. It’s just for fun! Now, for the kids, I find that it is a good idea to plan out your party activities, even any down time in front of a movie, thoroughly before guests arrive. That way you get to be in control of what happens in your house and when, and kids don’t have a chance to get bored or run amok. Luckily, there are tons of really fun Lion King-related games and activities to fill your party time. I always try to set up at least one craft at a party which can double as a favor to take home afterwards. For this party, you can let guests be kings just like Simba by cutting plain crowns out of brown, gold or silver cardstock, and then letting each guest decorate their crowns with Lion King or jungle stickers and glitter glue. Do this craft at the beginning of the party so that the crowns have a chance to dry before your guests go home. I also have several fun game ideas. You can play the Lion King version of “Duck, Duck, Goose,” which becomes “Lion, Lion, Hyena,” where the hyena has to chase the lion around the circle and catch him/her before the hyena’s place is taken in the circle. After a few rounds of that, you can play an animal hunting game. Just go to your local dollar store ahead of time and buy a bunch of small rubber or plastic jungle animals that you hide around your party area. Then give each guest a paper bag and 10 minutes to try to find the most animals possible. Then give a prize to the winner, like the soundtrack to The Lion King, for example. Another fun activity is to print out coloring pages of characters in the movie and to use the printouts as placemats. That way, before or as kids are eating their cake, they can color in their favorite characters and then take them home if they wish! So definitely provide coloring pencils or crayons at the table!
Food & Drink
Depending on what time of the day you are having your Lion King party, you may or may not have to provide a main course. Let’s say your party goes from 3pm until 5pm. That makes food planning pretty simple. You can provide grubs (snacks) in bowls around your party area, and then just sit the kids down for cake near the end of the party. Great jungle snacks that Timon and Pumbaa would approve of could include raisins, baby carrots, julienned cucumber, edamame pods, celery sticks with peanut butter (or cheese spread, if allergies are a concern) and gummi worms make great jungle snacks. Offer natural drinks like water and lemonade to stick with your nature theme!
Cake
I think that cupcakes are the easiest and least messy desserts to make for parties. Also, kids tend not to fight over who gets what, since every cupcake is the same size and shape. For a Lion King party, you can make a tower of cupcakes using a cupcake stand, or as above, you can use a cake tower to display your cupcakes. Using green and yellow food coloring for frosting sticks with your color scheme, and using animal figurines at the top ties the dessert into the party theme. Use yellow ribbon as above, or green ribbon to make the display more festive and to make the scene look more natural and jungle-like. Another option is to use animal figurines on the different levels, but to keep any lion figurines for the very top, like the first scene in the movie, when Simba, the future king is shown off to the animal kingdom.
Favors
Send your guests home with the crowns they made and the placemats they started coloring at the party. Also, in a favor bag, it would be great to include some crayons to finish up their character coloring page, also some play binoculars to seek out wildlife, and some animal crackers (for example, Trader Joe’s sells them in big plastic tubs, so if you’re on a budget, just buy one or two of the containers of cookies, and put them in small Ziplocs for the favor bags). Everyone will go home happy after a party like yours! Hakuna Matata!
Brynn is a content writer for Discount Party Supplies. Brynn is currently a stay-at-home mom, bringing up her firecracker of a daughter, Romy. She plays violin in a San Francisco Bay Area symphony, and though she doesn’t have time to host many parties with a toddler at home and another baby on the way, Brynn helps friends plan parties and has even successfully catered a party or two.
