There is nothing that brings out Shep’s true spirit more than the ZOO! On any given day he can be heard roaring like a lion or growling the words to Happy Birthday like a bear. That is why we chose the fun filled Nashville Zoo for his second birthday!

Decor

For this party we chose two of the best party people here in Nashville. Our friend, Mary, owns an over the top, event planning company called Please Be Seated. Through Mary, we also found Nashville’s original tent and event party company Let It B Love. Between the two of their creative brains they really made this party come to life

Please Be Seated has been doing our parties since our wedding and we’re still rocking and rolling with them! They put together this cute adult seating area for parents to take a break from running after their wild animals…I mean kids! She also provided these unique wooden tables, along with the rugs underneath!

The woman that made the event come to life and filled in all the holes was Let It B Love. She single-handedly put together the vision for the children’s tent picnic area, as well as the backdrop for the pictures. She came loaded with all of the extra accents to spruce up the space and make it picture perfect!

Food

When working with the amazing catering department at the zoo, we decided to keep it simple. Yes, you are seeing that right…we had chicken tenders, pizza, fruit, and veggies! It is important to remember in the hustle and bustle of a kids party, they are very simple creatures. My philosophy is to keep it simple when you can! The Nashville Zoo does offer different catering options, as well, if you’re looking for something a little bit more… elaborate. 

When I shared my vision for the cake and cupcakes with Haley (Sweets By Haley) , I gave her full reign to create and boy did she knock it out of the park! I had no idea she had an edible printer and she surprised us with the adorable cupcakes with Shep’s face on them!

Experiences

You may recognize this wall from Ford’s third birthday! It was a donut wall and for this party we repurposed it for an adorable safari hat wall. The construction and material of the wall itself only cost $75, it has for sure gotten its use! 

As parents we all know how it feels to put money and time into ‘party favors’, only for them to have a short life post party. That’s why I chose to do an “Adopt an Animal” stand, complete with animal adoption forms and all! We got the crates from Home Depot, the animals from Hobby Lobby, and we designed the adoption certificates ourselves! I am happy to say all the animals available for adoption that day went home to their forever families! 

The zoo provided an add-on option for Face Painting and we could not resist. Just look at this little lion!! For a more affordable DIY option you could also use these face tattoos I found on Amazon!

We cannot leave out the ONE OF A KIND experience of riding the carousel with all of our closest friends and family! It was truly magical!

LIONS and TIGERS and ARMADILLO’S…and SNAKES…OH MY! Oh my was right, when you have an animal encounter at the Zoo you have to roll with whichever animals are in the “mood” to come to the party. The kiddos enjoyed feeding worms to the armadillo and getting up close and a little too personal, with the snake!

DIY

These signs were purchased on amazon, we used our new Cricut Explore 3 to make these awesome designs!

For the centerpieces we ordered sets of zoo animals on amazon, vases from our house like these ones, artificial flowers , and rustic wooden bases!

We had Shep’s sweet face designed and printed it out (on our Cricut, what else?)! We then put it on different signage in the space as well as on these simple clear cups, just for an extra fun touch! 

As the rain rolled in we knew we needed to add one more thing to keep those sweet hands busy during the party. So I went searching the aisles of Michael’s and found these great bird houses. I also looked in the clearance section and found the paint.The shelving stands for the paint were from the Bullseye Playground section at Target!

Sweet Sheppy’s first birthday was celebrated at home with his closest friends and family so we knew we had to do this one right! We couldn’t have even dreamed of a better way to celebrate after our crazy busy second year of life with Sheppy! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdR2YcqR_SY