Wildlife

Do you have a special birthday coming up that you would love to make super fun for the kids and also eco-friendly for our planet? That was my wish for Noah’s recent reptile themed 5th birthday party and our little earth loving warrior had an awesome day! I wanted to share with you what we were most conscious of for this eco-party and how and who helped make it happen. I hope it gives you some inspiration on alternative ways to celebrate, whether it’s incorporating just one of these idea’s or all at your next party.

 

• PLASTIC FREE PARTY SET UP

We started our eco-party planning with e-invites, this can be a little tricky if you don’t know the parents but luckily it worked well for us. If you can’t do e-invites try using recycled paper card or craft paper invites as most glossy printed invites can’t be recycled.

Kids parties can be big consumers of single use plastics and non-recyclable items like party poppers, plastic decor, favours and balloons. I was lucky to already be in contact with eco-party planner ‘My Little Party Hire’  through the Family Eco Life directory and knew that what I had in mind for Noah’s special day was exactly what this business specialises in doing – making eco-friendly parties easy, magical and stress-free!

Jasmin Lance is the owner, creative director and party co-ordinator for ‘My Little Party Hire’ here on the Sunshine Coast. This business offers an extensive range of party decor and individual items for hire as well as fully inclusive  ‘party packages’ which include all activities, styling, set up and decor, so you have the option to just relax and enjoy the experience. We chose to do the ‘delightful little party’ package and then added a few extras that we needed. This meant that Jasmin took care of a huge amount of the organising that went into this beautiful occasion for Mr 5.

 

Our selected package included delivery to our party location and full set-up on the day of all these inclusions listed below. This inclusive package is a wonderful option for busy parents who want something special but don’t have the time to pull it all together on their own.

The wooden tables are custom-made for children’s height and have an overhead arch along with custom made wooden seats, large wooden birthday number 5, hand washing station with soap and towel, wooden party this way sign, full recycling system – including a Bokashi Ninja for composting, recycling bins and waste, gorgeous wooden entry arch with white bunting, wooden gift sign and basket, small drinking glasses decorated by Jasmin with the sweetest edible flowers for the kids, wooden plates to eat from at the centrepiece table, love heart platters, setting up and styling.

I can’t express enough the huge value there is in choosing a package that includes the setting up and styling! Jasmin comes from an interior design background and is just one of those people who has a talent for creating beautiful spaces. Jasmin’s spent 2 hours organising and styling the party area including a tropical greenery canopy over the kids table and eco-friendly place settings and decor, with plants, edible flowers and wooden props. All included in the package price.

If you don’t want to have a full party organised like we did, you can also opt to hire individual items from My Little Party Hire. There’s no minimum to what you can hire which means there’s a eco-friendly prop on the website to suit all budgets.  The wooden numbers are an amazing stand alone feature and the wooden plates, cake platters and party signs are perfect for a simple yet beautiful party at home or in the park. These party options provide families here on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane with a quality, plastic free alternative to help reduce waste and create magical moments for their children.

• FOOD – Allergy free

We organised this portion ourselves and kept it pretty simple. Noah has an egg allergy and we are also a plant based family so we wanted to make sure we had lots of tasty treats and I wasn’t having to say to the birthday boy…. ‘ah no sorry sweetie you can’t have that as it has egg in it” which is something he is use to hearing at social gatherings. The kids grazed on fresh fruit, delicious raw vegan tarts from ‘Maple & Sage’, Noah’s favourite veggie crudites of cucumber, celery, carrots and capsicum, vegan carrot cake muffins, dips, croissants, hot cross buns and more. We also had an allergy free birthday cake made with a chickpea base and hired 2 large glass water urns from ‘My Little Party Hire’ for refreshments. Our amazing party planner Jasmin had one urn filled with delicious organic blue lavender iced tea which both parents and kids absolutely loved! This was made by Jasmin prior to the party and brought along on the day so I didn’t have to worry about it, now how’s that for some amazing thoughtful service?!

 

 

• PARTY THEME & ENTERTAINMENT

Our wild child is all about nature, gardening, bees and reptiles at the moment so this was the perfect theme for his outdoor eco-party in a beautiful local park on the Sunshine Coast. We wanted to avoid more traditional party games that would create unnecessary waste and opted for an experience style party for Noah’s special day with real life reptiles and a face painter.

I connected with a local wildlife rescuer, snake handler and animal educator Julie from ‘Critter Catchers’ who came to the party with 2 carpet pythons named Merlin and Bane and a central bearded dragon called Bert. Julie worked and 2 other wildlife handlers spending nearly 2 hours letting the kids interact, pat and learn about the reptiles.  Some of the kids were completed memorised by the snakes for the entire time and others a little more cautious but absolutely all of them were fascinated and excited!

We also had Nicole from ‘Hilltop Face Painting’ come along and paint the kids faces as reptiles, insects and animals. We opted to go glitter free to keep the activity as eco-friendly as possible. Nicole is super talented at what she does and I highly recommend getting in touch with her for parties if you live on the Sunshine Coast.

As we decided not to do traditional party games My Little Party Hire also provided lawn games for the kids to play with throughout the morning at their own leisure. Wobble boards, large wooden dominoes, quoits, bubbles along with picnic blankets for parents to sit on while the kids played.

 

• ECO-PARTY BAGS

At Family Eco Life we are lucky to work with some amazing eco-friendly Children’s brands that helped me put together eco-party bags for Noah’s friends.

I made up the party bags myself with supplies from the beautiful ‘Behind the Trees Wooden Toys’ and ‘Seeds for Tomorrow’. These included a mix of beautiful crystals, bee friendly seed mix to plant at home, wooden wiggly snakes and a sweet rubber bee. These were a huge hit with the kids and parents loved that these little brown bags weren’t full of lollies for the car ride home.

Behind the Trees Wooden Toys stocks a wonderful variety of sustainably made, mindful, educational and unique toys and gifts and they are our readers 10% off storewide with code ECOPLAY. Seeds for Tomorrow  have beautiful growing kits for children with both herb and bee themes along with garden tools and positive affirmations for kids, grab 20% off this eco-friendly range with discount code of FAMILYECO20 .

 

 

• REDUCING WASTE

Between kids and adults we had more than 30 guests and if we weren’t being conscious this could have create a lot of waste. As we didn’t have balloons, streamers or plastic decor and made the most of the reusables organised we managed to avoid having loads of rubbish and waste.  My Little Party Hire’s recycling system is such a fantastic idea, everything was disposed of correctly and we mainly just had compostable food waste left that went into the Bokashi Ninja .

 

 

It was a wonderful day for Noah who finished off having a fully clothed swim in the river beside the park with some of his buddies! So many special memories created and I really can’t thank Jasmin enough for helping me bring it all together. We are so lucky to have small eco-businesses like these who committed to helping parents create conscious lifestyles and events for families to enjoy.

I also grabbed these 3 great tips from Jasmin for planning your next birthday party for kids and if you mention ‘Family Eco Life’ you can get a $50.00 voucher to go towards booking one of the My Little Party Hire ‘party packages’.

‘Check them out below…

Jasmin, you always seem to have a new and creative theme incorporated into your parties, what’s your advice of choosing a theme?

Mermaids that go glamping! Dinosaurs that wear tutus! There are no rules whatsoever when it comes to themes. Dream up something magical with your child that suits their interests. It can be totally out there, gorgeously cute and fun. Endless ideas and combinations. Start early and let the theme choice start you on your party journey!

Do you have any tips when it comes to picking a location? 

Think of a place that is age appropriate, convenient for you and your guests. Keep in mind safety, shade and have a plan B for a surprise rainy day. Gum boots, raincoats and umbrellas might not represent the perfect party weather but it can be so much fun going on an adventures treasure hunt.

What do you suggest when it comes to party activities in avoiding plastic and waste?

We absolutely love planning nature play based activities! DIY fairy garden, mermaid palace, fossil digging and many more. The activity can be started with a treasure hunt to find the key elements that are needed for creating the activity. If you are limited on space, you could play the classic pass the parcel for them to receive the treasures. Our tables are the perfect height for creating their little magic activity on and the activities we arrange in our packages are all plastic free.

I hope this was helpful and inspires you with all the possibilities available for your child’s next birthday.

Find all the contact details for the wonderful suppliers we worked with below:

My Little Party Hire

Behind the Trees Wooden Toys

Seeds for Tomorrow

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact via email hello@familyecolife.com.au or via DM on instagram @familyecolife.au

Warmly

Trish x