Prepare. Some of you may not agree with my seemingly sacreligious ways in the following: To be sure, it is also against my own official religious stance (Catholicism, with a twist of liberation theology, for fun), but the real reason I've been stuck on the safari concept for Kai's birthday party since he was probably just a few hours old is because he is SUCH a Leo. (See: next blog.)
 
Yes, my little lion, whose ear drum-defying roar has been able to shake this jungle-low, from its canopy right down to the floor, and whose pride has prevented him from finding any humor -- Ever. -- in any and all public spills. Before he even entertains the notion that a fall may have hurt, his eyes dart around to take an ego-blowing tally of who did and did not see. God love him. Let's just pray for the world that he doesn't grow up to be a short man. Incidentally, Napoleon was born just two days before ...

Hey there, li'l guy:

Nonetheless, I embrace -- and secretly revel -- in his strong sun-sign personality, like so:

Setting the Scene:

Because the concept of a real safari makes me sad, sick and angry, I wanted to incorporate this facet minimally. Still, some of the details did allude to a safari-like expedition, because it was inescapable. Kind of like innocent jungle creatures must feel about white men with muskets.

I said to myself, "If only I had a bright yellow Jeep to park in my front yard on which I could throw a rough-cut cardboard sign saying "Welcome to the Jungle" as a most economical (read: free) party prop that delivers a nice wow factor. That evening, returning from my bi-daily trip to Target, there it was: A Jeep. Yellow. For sale by a new neighbor with whom I had never so much as exchanged a glance, let alone one conversation. But the phone number, it was right there, taped to the window. Voice mail meant that I left a 14-minute message. This guy is never, ever calling me back, for sure, I thought. Then, that night, he did. "That was the weirdest voice mail I have ever gotten. I had to make my wife listen to it, too." Fine, it's true -- I may be a superfreak, but he was totally into the concept, especially when I said what great advertising it would be for his Jeep-sale venture.
 

So there it was planted -- on my front yard, near the banana-bearing peach tree. Coupled with this slightly-trite mileage signpost (I detracted from the trite factor by at least making the numbers accurate by the power of the Internet), is there any question that this was the place of party? I think not.

Later, my fabulous father-in-law said to me: "Aw, Alicia -- you totally biffed! You SO should have had 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns 'n Roses playing!" No, Patrick. I love you, but that was by no means a mistake.

I didn't get a shot of the final presentation, but ... alternating lime green and sky blue tablecloths, a mixture of light, dark and striped green balloons with a few reds interspersed here and there to create the sense of jungle greenery. On each table, I used African-inspired placemats and set out rubber snakes and stuffed lions, elephants, zebras, etc. It was cutefest.

There were "animal pelts" (I know, I know), compliments of Grandma Adriana ...

 Fishing in the Nile ...

A "Relief Package" pinata filled with expedition supplies: little brown paper-wrapped packages that dropped from the sky, U.N.-style. Soooo very un-P.C., I know.

 
(This is Suzanne -- she owned our house before we did. Sometimes, our similarites are downright disturbing.) 

And then there was Gage, poor, darling Gage. Chop-chop-chopping the veggies the whole party through. We had the brill idea of doing kebabs, because they so nicely kept with the safari theme, but we failed to recognize the importance of doing any pre-chopping for 100 of these ...

                                                                                                     The Menu

Pass-Around Appetizers:

Fried plantains and peanut butter & jellyphant sandwiches (hard har)

Nosh:

Homemade Chex Mix, peanuts, animal crackers and dried cranberries

Main:

Marinated grilled chicken kebabs with pepper, mushroom, pineapple and onion

Turkey kofte kebabs served with a cucumber dill and garlic sauce

Sally's Rice Salad (compliments of Cora ... she's amazing)

Tabouli

Gage's Homemade Hummus

Fresh, warm pita (I thought I was going to make my own grilled flatbreads until Gage talked some sense into me, letting me know how unpleasant I would have likely been that morning, rolling out the dough to make my own bread)

Tomato, cucumber, basil onion and garlic salad (we're Italian, what can I say)

Roasted red pepper (ditto)

 and five pounds of pinto beans I forgot to serve.

 Desserts

But ohhhh, buddy. Perhaps the pièce de résistance of the party came by way of the most amazing cupcakes I have ever in my life tasted, done by Diana ... but I actually want to talk more about her divine creations in a subsequent blog, so for now, here's a pic of what she did for Kai:

as well as an individual smash cake:

But perhaps best of all for Kai, was this shiny, red wagon from Grandma and Grandpa. Just look at the little Napoleon go:

Because this blog has reach embarrassing lengths (once again ... no wonder why I was a disgruntled journalist, working to fit the complexities of a story in 700 words), I'll just leave you with this: 'Twas a blast, and the day really felt poignant, but Kai's not going to see the likes of this party until he's 16, at which point it will be highly likely he will not want a jungle safari party, so I think I'm safe.