Ariana's Jungle Cruise Birthday Party

Birthdays are always special occasions in my family, and they're always worth celebrating.  This is especially so when they mark a milestone, as is the case with my little sister's recent quinceañera!  To celebrate, my mom and I threw her a Jungle Cruise themed birthday party that she loved!

While Mami and my little sister Ariana went on a day trip to the Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas, I not only prepared everything for Mami's Mother's Day Teddy Bear Picnic party, but I also planned a few things for Ariana's birthday.  That was mostly ordering decorations and coming up with some ideas on how to make our house really look like a jungle!

Then, the day before her birthday, our Mami had to go shopping for some last-minute items.  It took a while, and it was pretty late by the time we got started working on everything, so Mami and I ended up staying awake all night, but we got everything done and the party turned out to be a great success!

My first project for the party was making this sign!  With some cardboard and paint, I managed to make it look like a wooden direction sign!  I'm not very good with markers, so I let Mami write the locations on it, and I really like the way that it turned out!  
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​The locations it guides you to, like Lagrimas de Cristal, are all from the Jungle Cruise movie!

​That wasn't the only sign that I made though!  There's also this Jungle Cruise sign that I made to resemble the one that's at the entrance of the Jungle Cruise ride. 

And since we're on the topic of decorations, there's also these cargo boxes that added to the jungle cruise feeling!  It made it seem like we were at a port in the tropics, waiting to board the ship!  

Making it was really simple too!  Mami and I wrapped a few large containers in craft paper and stacked them.  I designed and printed warning labels that read things like "caution," "fragile," and "live animals" and put them on.  Then a few faux leaves, a weather radio (we already had it, so it was perfect), a net, and jaguar plush were the finishing touches that it needed!  

The jaguar was also a great gift for Ariana!  She named her Proxima, once again referring to the Jungle Cruise movie!  

And the other stack in the room were her presents!  Most were from Mami, but there was one from me...

...and since I picked out the jaguar and sloth stuffed animals, Mami said that they were presents from me!

She loved them, so I guess it was a great choice!

Now, let's see what's at the table!

Let's start with what I made.... a snake sub!  I thought that it was a cute idea, so I made a few loaves of bread and used them to make Tofurkey and cheese (Violife) sandwiches with some chipotle sauce.  It was tasty and cute!

As for the face...two green olives for eyes and some sliced Tofurkey did the trick!  

And in the background, you can see some "Jungle Vines," or Veggie Straws, as you may know them!

And there were still some other simple yet tasty treats that we set out!  Like this "snake pit" made from "Sprouts" brand vegan gummy worms!

What about some "python eggs"?  Not real, of course!  What kind of a vegan would I be if I ate python eggs?  These were Lesser Evil "Interstellar Cheddar" Space Balls.  And to make it more convincing, a fake python coiled next to it!  

And if you're going to the Amazon, don't forget to bring along some vials of "malaria medicine!"  We filled the vials with some Smarties candy and it instantly became a deliciously fun decoration!  

And yes, Smarties are vegan!  Their website explicitly states that they are, which is definitely reassuring!  

And for drinks, how do a glass of swamp water or a cup of jungle juice sound?  Or perhaps you'd prefer it by its more common names of apple juice or mango and passion fruit juice!  

The table needs some decorations too!  That's why we came up with this sign that says "1 day since last accident" with a skull in an explorers hat next to it.  

What happened to this guy?

Well, we'll leave that to your imagination!

And what's a birthday party without a birthday cake?  I don't even want to think about that!  

Fortunately, Mami made a delicious cake for Ariana's birthday!  It was a chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting!  Actually, it's the filling for her peanut butter pie, but it also serves as an amazing cake frosting!  I repeated myself as many times as I could!  This cake was SO GOOD!

And to make it fit in with the theme, a little sloth in a tree cake topper was all we needed!

By the time all this was set, the sun had already come up and Ariana was too!  So she came out of her room to see what we'd prepared for her!

What's that in her hand?  A cruise ticket that I'd designed for her!  You can't go on a jungle cruise without a cruise boarding pass after all! 

Ariana loved everything that we'd made for her!  After taking a look around at everything...

...it was time for presents!  She started with my gift to her...

....which was this funny shirt!  Another success!

As were Mami's gifts for Ariana!  

Including a ticket to an Ed Sheeran concert!  

Since Mami and I had both been up for more than 24 hours, we seriously had to take a nap!  Meanwhile Ariana watched the Jungle Cruise movie and read one of her new books.  

When we woke up, we watched some TV and enjoyed some of the treats that we'd prepared!

Later, we had some cake and dinner, and watched another movie of Ariana's choice; Jurassic World: Dominion.  

But the cake was exciting too!  I know, exciting usually isn't the word to describe lighting birthday candles and singing "Happy Birthday."  But this time, is.  

We couldn't find any birthday candles that we knew were vegan.  We weren't sure whether they were made from a plant-based wax or beeswax, so we opted for some sparklers instead.

That was a mistake.  Not only because they're bad for the environment, as I later remembered, but also because there was a little accident.  The sparks got a little out of hand and ended up on the tablecloth.  

I think you can see where this is going...

Tiny parts of the tablecloth caught on fire.  It wasn't scary since the flames were so small, but it was, as I said, exciting. 

Luckily, except for a few holes in the tablecloth and three tiny burn marks in the table, no harm was done!

A trip to the jungle for Ariana's 15th birthday party, this celebration was a great success featuring tasty food and festive decoration!  

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