Our youngest son (Milo) is a HUGE animal lover. So for the third year in four years, his birthday is themed around animals. And this year he got to celebrate with “friends” (his cousins). Normally when our kids turn five is when we introduce the friends’ party, however thanks to moving and covid we just didn’t feel comfortable with it yet for our little guy. Nonetheless I wanted make it special, as if it was a friend party!
This summer Milo became obsessed with the show Wild Kratts. I have to say, I don’t hate it one bit! It is one of the few shows I don’t mind him watching day after day, because its fun and he learns so much about a subject he absolutely loves, ANIMALS! I knew this would be the perfect theme for our future animal rescuer/ zoologist.
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Table of contents
Birthday parties have become a science to me. Invitations, cake/ cupcakes, decor, games, thank you bags, and party outfits. Same ingredients just different themes. The older the kids get, the more input they have. It is so fun having their visions come to life. This was the first party Milo has had input into and the delight he had while we planned and prepared was something I will remember just as much as the party itself!
So let me break down this WILD KRATTS BIRTHDAY PARTY for you! Step by step so you too can celebrate your creature power lover.
Invitations
Every good party needs an invite to get the guests there. I found these adorable and simple printable ones on Etsy! When I can, I try and support other Etsy sellers like myself and invites are always found there. What I love about digital download invites is you can print them at home, or through a photo printing center, or just email/ text as a digital file. You can make them as elaborate or simple as you have time and budget for.
Cake/ Cupcakes
If I can, I always try and convince the kids to pick cupcakes for their party. It makes things much simpler (in my opinion) to pass out to guests and left overs are much neater too. However, some of our kids just plain like cake. So it dawned on me why don’t we do both! A super small (smash cake size 6″ round) cake for the birthday boy and cupcakes for the guests. Added bonus, this also eliminates blowing out the candles onto guests food!
Cupcake toppers are the easiest way to decorate a cake and cupcakes. It also cuts down on the cost of the cake if it doesn’t have an elaborate frosting job! These cupcake toppers were one of the first things I found and purchased for Milo’s party. They came with more than enough (30 toppers) for our small gathering, so we also used them to spice up his cake. With a quick snip of the stick part they easily stuck to the frosting on his round cake. Add a candle and voilà!
Something we added last minute was a figure similar to this one. His grandparents gifted him an action figure set earlier that day. He thought it would be fun to have on his cake so we made it fit 🙂
To eat the cupcakes, I found these Wild Kratts cake plates! It was hard finding much in terms of themed tableware, but animal themed plates would work great too!
Decorations
Fun fact, on the PBS website they have fun ideas and printable for your Wild Kratts fan! Check out https://www.pbs.org/parents/birthdays/wild-kratts-birthday-party to get started. One must is the printable creature power discs!
Decorations for this party were pretty minimal. We were hosting it at my parents house so 1- I didn’t want to have to pack a ton and 2- I didn’t have a lot of places to incorporate decorations into. This made it pretty easy! A couple balloons and a banner, I called it good.
I designed this creature power disc banner with the PBS download and a little creativity on canvas. Get the free PDF by clicking the image below! All you have to do is download, print, cut and enjoy!
Games + Thank you Bags
When scouring around Pinterest for ideas (like I’m sure you were when you found this post:)) I saw several ideas on DIY Creature Power Suits. Milo was OBSESSED and loved the idea of making these for his siblings and cousins. This became the main event of his party.
I love when you can kill two birds with one stone. These creature power suits did just that! What a fun favor to give his guests plus it created the base of a fun activity and free play afterwards. I also love that these are NO SEW SUITS! Give me an iron or a glue gun and I can create the world… ask me to sew and you are in trouble! So after some brainstorming and looking at other mom blogs for inspiration I came up with a plan.
I started with cheap crew neck sweatshirts from Walmart. Not listed online but I found these comparable ones on Amazon. I liked using a sweatshirt over a t-shirt because it gave it more structure and strength for the creature patch that was coming later. However, to be a vest like in the show I cut off the sleeves. Make sure you have a good fabric scissors to make clean cuts! The scissors will also be important for cutting the felt too.
Speaking of felt! You will need felt sheets in your desired colors, I used two sheets per vest but had a little extra. Then, with your iron on the hottest setting WITHOUT steam, iron on adhesive backing to the full sheet. Take your time ironing and apply pressure to make sure it is well adhered to place onto your sweatshirt soon!
For the circles I simply found two bowls that looked like appropriate sizes and traced! Not an exact science just some good ole’ mom skills ;). Then using those fancy fabric scissors cut out your circles. Using left over pieces of backed felt, cut strips for the side pieces, two short and one long for each side (totaling 6 strips per vest). This again was just eye ball sizing and cutting so, you do you!
When you have all your felt pieces ready to go its back to ironing. Do the paw print itself first. Peel the paper backing off and position the felt pieces how you like. Then VERY carefully and slowly iron down while applying pressure. I found it is important not to move the iron very much. Hold still and steady with pressure, picking up the iron to reposition around the felt pieces. Once they have a start of adhering then you can slowly move back and forth. Let felt cool and check edges to make sure everything is tight and glued down. Then you can repeat the process on the side panel pieces.
After you have your vests complete its time to make some CREATURE POWER DISCS! Download the printable from PBS or browse the internet for other options. Print on card stock and cut out. Then for durability laminate the discs and cut again. Make sure you have enough laminating sheets and thick ones for extra strength. Boom, creature power discs are complete! In order to have them be useable with the vests attach small velcro pieces to each disc and one opposite piece to the center of the vests.
As an activity at the party we had a scavenger hunt! Kids absolutely love scavenger hunts. I hid these amazing felt animal masks that coordinating with the creature power discs I made. Hidden as sets, once the kids found a pair they could transform into the creature. In order to help search, another part of Milo’s thank you bags were some cheap binoculars. How fun, right!? After the hunt all the kids played with the animal masks/discs transforming, pretending, and adventuring as Wild Kratts! At the end of the party each kid got to bring some home in their thank you bags to keep the fun going.
Party Outfit
Sometimes party outfits are as simple as a shirt made with an iron on image, and sometimes you have a five year old who wants to become Martin AND have a “fancy” shirt! Easier than it sounds, I purchased a blue zip up hoodie (from Target) and he wore his khaki pants, matching Martin’s go to look. For his shirt, a little work on my beloved Canva, iron-on transfer paper, and a happy birthday boy was made.
If there is one thing I have learned in my years of party planning for many kids its this: the thought, the listening, and the personal effort is much more meaningful to them than the fancy, expensive, or elaborate. So grab your birthday little, ask them what THEY WANT. And have fun making the most of their Wild Kratts day!
Amazon Links for Easy Shopping
Miss a link within the text? Looking for a supply for your DIY? I have set them all up for easy party planning!
babystaylittle.com 