REPTILE Party!

Want some ideas for a slithering good time for a Reptile party? I hope these ideas inspire you....feel free to use any of my ideas....make them better....and take credit for your brilliance! You are SUPERMOM!

Invites: I found a very cool snake image on istockphoto.com, then created the invite on Microsoft word and printed them on cardstock.

Decor:
-lots, and lots, and lots of plastic lizards, snakes, turtles, alligators, crocodiles, etc....most from orientaltrading.com and ustoys.com
-long, thin green balloons (the kind they use to make balloon animals) with snake faces drawn on them
-lots of dark green, light green, and brown streamers

-a large alligator pool raft
-a path of various reptiles (drawn in chalk) from the sidewalk, leading to the front door
-my kids drew various reptiles on cardstock, cut them out, and hung them around the party area
-various books about reptiles and informational brochures (free from the pet store)

Arrival: We had a few games ready when people arrived...
-I found a great Reptile Scavenger Hunt on www.superteacherworksheets.com (http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/animals/reptile-scav-hunt.pdf). I posted the "information cards" around the party area and gave each guest a worksheet where they had to find answers to various reptile questions using the information cards

-For school, my son had to create a new game. He created a game called, Snake Attack"...so that was available for guests to play too.

Activities:
-I don't usually pay for entertainment, but this was one party where it was well worth it! We hired a company to bring reptile guests to the party for about an hour...they ended up staying about an hour and a half so kids could take pictures with the reptiles too. They brought about 12-15 critters. It was tons of fun....and educational too! Even the grown ups joined the action!

Cake: I used a friends' round jello mold to bake 2 cake circles. When the cakes cooled, I cut the cakes into various sized arcs and assembled them into a snake shape on a piece of plywood (covered in a plastic table cloth). My sons' favorite color is turquoise, so I created a turquoise frosting to cover the snake. I added stripes with pieces of multi-colored fruit-by-the-foot rolls (also used that to make a tongue) and created a "rattle tail" with M&Ms. I made eyes using gumballs...and added pupils to the eyes with black edible gel pen. The cake was a huge hit!

Party favors: Each guest received a bag that included: an informational story about reptiles (I printed from the Super Teacher website, a snake notepad, and a reptile pencil. Then from baskets they selected one: plastic snake, lizard, alligator, and turtle.