For Josiah’s birthday in 2004, we had a Safari Party at the zoo, and then spent several weeks thereafter studying Africa. Africa is a fascinating continent because it is home to so many of God’s magnificent creatures. The following is a list of Josiah’s birthday gifts and all the fun activities we enjoyed. Consider surprising your children with a safari this summer and enjoy how much fun you give them.
For Josiah’s birthday breakfast, I used tulle from a garden party that I had given the previous night (see how to hang in this issue under “Signature Touches” on page **), untied the ribbons at each end of the table’s corners and pulled the tulle completely around our dining room table so that it would look like mosquito netting. On the table I placed a silk orchid, a huge leaf platter, a map of Africa, and all of the following gifts:
¨ A Magnetic African Adventure play set consisting of an African savanna with water hole and 23 magnetic animal pieces—giraffe, elephant, hippopotamus, alligator, lion, rhinoceros, monkey, baboon, warthog, cheetah, zebra, hyena, impala, ostrich, wildebeest….
¨ A Safari Wild Beasts Toob and a Safari Big Cats Toob, each containing beautiful plastic animals. The Big Cats Toob, of course, contains wild cats, while the Wild Beasts Toob contains elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinoceroses, tigers, gorillas, jaguars, zebras, hippopotamuses, and a camel. These are great little authentic replicas, which Josiah loves.
¨ Grasslands and Deserts by Harper Festival is a cute pop-up book, which covers the cheetah, oryx, rhinoceros….
¨ 10 Days in Africa by Out of the Box Games is a geography game where each player, using country and transportation cards, tries to be the first player to chart his ten-day journey across Africa.
¨ Special Wonders of the Wild Kingdom by Buddy and Kay Davis is written by creationists who give God the glory and cover the camel, rhinoceros, cheetah, elephant, anteater, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, leopard, lion, antelope, sloth, tiger, and zebra.
¨ (The following was given to him by one of his friends, so I did not have this to place on the table but would have if we had given it to him. It is certainly a great book.) The African Plains Dover Coloring Book provides forty-one beautifully detailed pages to color of the flora, fauna, and wildlife of the African plains. Within its pages children will see cheetahs, zebras, termite mounds, acacia trees, African hunting dogs chasing a wildebeest, Egyptian plovers….
We created a savanna on a piece of plywood by painting it a buff color mixed with sand. We used moss for shrubs and made acacia trees with branches, thorns, and little green leaves. To one side we painted a watering hole and even made termite mounds out of clay mixed with sand. This was all so that Josiah could play with his African plastic animals in an authentic habitat.
Using a shoebox, paints, and clay, we made a jungle panorama for the plastic animals, and Josiah made a few animals out of clay.
We made animal masks out of paper bags.
We watched Born Free and Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventure of the Jungle Cat.
We read Usborne’s Jungle Book.
The following is not an activity that we have done yet, but it would be a great addition to this party. Make a felt lion hand puppet. Using light brown felt, have your child place his hand on the felt, holding thumb and pinky to each side with the other fingers together. Trace around the hand on the felt. Cut out two pieces of handprint. Sew sides and top together, leaving opening at bottom for hand to fit through. Sew on buttons for eyes, brown yarn for mane, a button for nose, and yarn for mouth.
For the Safari luncheon, we had trail mix, zebra steaks (which was just a beef roast, but the kids loved cutting hunks off with a long knife), mangoes, bananas, alligator meat (gummy alligators), dates, river water (bottled water), and a sheet cake covered with plastic African animals. We enjoyed this at a beautiful pavilion that had two fireplaces and lovely rock work. It faced Hwy. 40 and was the second pavilion west of the Zoo’s entrance.
After lunch, I divided up the children into two teams and gave them each a packet that contained pages of facts about the African animals they were to hunt. I also gave each team a disposable camera for shooting a picture of themselves in front of each animal they found and a walkie-talkie so that each group could contact one another. Then on my signal, each group started the race to see which team could finish the safari first. To make it fair to each group, I had them find the same animals, but ordered their list of animal facts opposite of each other, so that each team started at different ends of the zoo. The following list of facts was given to each group, which their leader had to read. Then the group had to identify the animal, run to locate it, stand before it, shoot it with the camera I gave them, and then proceed to the next animal.
It was truly a blast, but beware, I literally thought I might die gasping, as the younger children ran at a fevered pitch, which meant that I as their chaperone had to keep up with them. Several times, through gasping breaths, I had to slow them down just so I could catch my breath. So get in shape before you go so that you can keep up. But go, by all means, because you will enjoy it so much!
1. I am very intelligent and very social. I eat bark, fruit, and grass. When full grown I need to eat 300 pounds of these foods daily. I am the largest land animal standing 12-13 feet high and weighing 5-6 tons. Even my baby weighs 300 pounds. And if I die while my baby is still young, I need not worry, for another mother will adopt it. (Elephant)
2. I live in caves and holes in Africa and southern Asia. I am the size of a large dog with a large head. My forelegs are longer than my hind legs, which make me walk with an awkward gait. I am a nocturnal, carnivorous scavenger with jaws and teeth powerful enough to crush the hardest bones. I am especially known for my haunting laugh. (Hyena)
3. I measure 6 feet long and weigh 90-140 pounds. I live in Africa, Arabia, India, and the Middle East. On the African plains called savannas, I hunt gazelles and impalas, alone or sometimes in pairs. I cannot climb trees because my legs are straight, and I am the only cat that cannot fully retract its claws. I am the fastest land animal, running 50-60 miles an hour. (Cheetah)
4. I live in the dense forests of Africa and feed on bamboo shoots, wild celery, tender plants, tree bark, and fruit. During the day in early afternoon, I rest while the younger ones play. Every night I make my bed on the ground with leaves and branches along with the other members of our small group. When I was born, I was tinier than a human baby and stayed with my mother for several years while she taught me to eat and to socialize. I now stand 5½ feet tall and weigh 440 pounds. I have short legs and long arms, broad shoulders, deep set eyes, bushy eyebrows, a flat nose, and long dark hair that will turn gray when I am old. I walk and run on my knuckles, and when I am excited, I beat my chest with both fists while I roar wildly. I hope to live to be 50 years old. (Gorilla)
5. I am beautiful! When full grown I stand between 5 to 6½ feet tall with slender long legs and a slender neck that is as limber as a snake. I live in tropical and subtropical countries and can occasionally be found in the marshes of Florida and Louisiana. I feed on water plants and on shellfish, which give me my brilliant color. During nesting season, we gather by the thousands to build mounds of mud that resemble miniature volcanoes. In each crater a single egg is laid. While in flight we have been described as a gigantic brilliantly rosy scarf that waves to and fro in mighty folds as we fly. (Flamingos)
6. I am intelligent, good-natured, and gentle but have been known to kill lions with my head used as a sledgehammer in defense of my young. I am rather peculiar. I am totally silent, even when captured. I sometimes sleep leaning against a tree. Although my body is smaller than an average horse, I stand 16-20 feet tall. My front legs alone are 8-10 feet long, and then my stiff neck is 6 feet longer. My chest is much wider than my rump. I have a short soft mane. My knees are covered with calluses. My upper lip is long, and this, along with my 1½-foot long tongue, helps me to grasp my favorite food, which happens to be leaves; mimosa trees are my favorite. I chew my cud. I live in a small herd in Africa. (Giraffe)
7. I am a queer looking animal of the African and Arabian deserts. I am eight feet tall and weigh 300 pounds. My long, strong, thick legs carry me across the desert faster than the swiftest Arabian horse. I can even cover 25 feet in a single stride. I have a long neck, small head, a humped back, two padded toes on each foot, and an ungainly walk. I eat coarse desert plants and add stones and other hard objects to my diet to help grind up my food. I lay 40-50 eggs, which weigh more than 3 pounds each. If cornered or harmed, I will fight viciously, kicking sideways and forwards. One blow from me can kill a man or animal. I am the largest living bird but cannot fly. (Ostrich)
8. I am a very useful domestic animal. People eat my flesh, drink my milk, weave my hair into cloth for clothing and tents, use me to carry their burdens, and ride me. However, I do have a reputation for having a bad temper and for my unwillingness to work. As a matter of fact, I seldom work without protest, moaning and groaning when loads are placed on my back, and I do nip, bite, and kick. But I can carry 500-600 pounds 25 miles a day. Without a load I can carry a person up to 75 miles a day. I live in Arabia, Syria, Africa, and Asia. Before railroad transportation, 600 of us could be seen transporting goods between Cairo and Suez each day. I am large and shaggy. My long lashes protect my large brown eyes from the sun, and my nostrils can be closed during sandstorms. I have long jaws that swing from side to side as I chew my cud. My knobby knees have pads of calluses to cushion my knees as I kneel for my master to load his burden upon my back. My feet split, spreading wide to help prevent me from sinking into the sand. My hump is made of fat and muscle and is helpful when food is scarce because I draw upon its stored energy. I eat twigs, thistles, and thorny shrubs, and my master also feeds me dried dates and hard beans. I eat relatively anything and consider an old mat or basket a delicacy. I can go a week without water, storing it in little cells in my stomach. I am called the “ship of the desert” because when I walk, I lift both feet on one side at the same time, making one sway like a ship at sea. At one time Job had 6,000 creatures just like me. (Camel)
9. Although I am a member of the horse family, I have never been truly domesticated. Natives eat me and use my hide for leather. I am 4 feet high at the shoulder, have a mane, and stripes. (Zebra)
10. I once inhabited all of Africa, southern Asia, and southeastern Europe. I can cover 30 feet in one bound, and only an antelope can outrun me. I eat deer, antelope, zebras, buffalo, camels, and sometimes even man. I can get as large as 9-10 feet in length and up to 500 pounds. In a single blow, I can crush the skull of an ox or break the back of a horse. I am truly King of the Jungle. (Lion)
11. I belong to a large family numbering over 2,300 species. My ancestors were worshipped as gods, for pagans considered us symbols of wealth and knowledge. The Greeks even dedicated us to the god of medicine. Our teeth are curved backwards. Our meals consist of insects, fish, frogs, lizards, birds, mice, rabbits, gophers, and other small mammals. I personally live in dry bushy regions, am 12 feet long, am able to swallow whole animals the size of a dog, and crush my prey with my powerful coils. (Boa Constrictor)
12. We are mammals that live in the waters of South Africa. We have 1-2 pups annually that are covered with thick, soft, nearly white fur. Some of our elders weigh as much as 800 pounds. We are very social and playful. We are hunted for our skins, flesh, and blubber. We eat fish. Our chief enemy is the killer whale. (Seals)
For the grand finale, we took the children to The Elephant Bar Restaurant, which is situated on the parking lot of West County Mall, behind the parking garage. At first sight, we could see that this restaurant was going to be a great experience.
To open the doors, we had to pull on beautiful metal elephant door handles. Once inside, we were facing statues of giraffes, palm fans that were swaying to and fro, and palm trees. To the right of us hung a huge elephant head next to a waterfall. For our seating we chose the booths along the back wall because the area was decorated to look like berthing cars on a train running through Africa, of course. Situated above the booths was the luggage compartment lined with luggage. I selected the booth upholstered in African animal fabric.
On the way to our compartment, we walked upon leopard carpeting. From our seats in the train compartment on our way to Nairobi, we could see the ceiling painted in zebra stripes and giraffe geometrical shapes. The hostess gave Josiah a cheetah mask and a canister in the shape of an elephant’s foot filled with crayons for coloring an African picture.
On the menu we read that the Executive Chef trained in Lucerne, Switzerland, Asia, and Europe. Reading descriptions of the meals was quite a treat, as well. Everything is created and described to enhance the dining adventure, while made from scratch from fresh ingredients. We started our meals with their delicious fruit freezes. Our selections were quite reasonable (between $6.95 and $9.95). The generous portions were beautifully appointed and delicious. And, of course, we couldn’t resist sharing their largest Wild Dessert. This is a must for the entire family. For more information, visit www.elephantbar.com.
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