Calling All Party Animals...

The holidays may be over but in our house the preparations for upcoming celebrations are getting into full swing again... Australia Day this weekend, Valentine's Day less than a month away and, most importantly, Ava's birthday coming up in a few weeks.

Each year Ava's birthday sneaks up on me. I mean, obviously I know when my daughter's birthday is, but each year I think I'm going to have a nice break between the Christmas season and preparing for Ava's birthday when in actual fact it all just merges into one big mass of crafts and party planning! I always fall into the trap of thinking I've got a two month buffer between the two (Christmas in December, Ava's birthday in February) but really there's only one full month in between, and it's always a busy one.

This year for Ava's birthday (the scarily big sounding 7) we're going for a reptile theme. She originally had her heart set on celebrating with friends at the new American Girl store in Palo Alto (possibly the complete opposite to a reptile party!) but after pet sitting her class gecko over the Winter break she's got reptile fever!

A reptile party is certainly going to be fun, especially with the special visit that I've lined up from some scaly friends from East Bay Vivarium, however I still wanted to keep it a little cute. Not super girly, mind you, just a touch of cuteness when it comes to the cake, party bags and invites.

So just how does one make reptiles cute? Well, it's a birthday party right? What could be cuter than colourful party hats? Tiny little party hats on tiny little lizards, tortoises, crocodiles and frogs. Cute and fun - perfect!

I rounded up a selection of Schleich reptile and amphibian figurines and made little party hats and ribbon-tied parcels for them. From scaly and scary to instant cute!

Party hats make everything cute

Big tortoise, little tortoise

Getting into party mode

Reptile photo shoot

And here they are on the invitations and envelope labels...

Party invitations

Matching envelope labels

Ava also decided to make her own hand drawn invitations featuring a happy gecko in the sun. She spent quite some time working on her own invitations so I included these in the envelope with the "official" invitation.

The invitations that Ava made went in the envelope too

Our little reptile friends in their party hats will be popping up all over Ava's birthday party. Expect to see them on party bags, temporary tattoos, signage and even having their own little party on top of the birthday cake.

I can't wait to share it all with you!