A few months ago James and I gifted our kids with a dream we both have personally had since we got married – we told them that we were taking them to Disney World this year! Yay! Yay! Yay!
Sadly, we have to be patient and wait to go because we can’t take time off work in the middle of our semesters we’re teaching and we also needed time to save up for the trip, so the soonest we can take them to Disney World is this summer. As part of the kids Christmas gift, every month leading up to our Disney World trip we are surprising the kids with a fun “Disney world theme night”.
This month we are adventuring into Animal Kingdom with a fun Lion King themed dinner and movie night.
Take a look at the fun we had this month (and grab the free Lion King itinerary at the bottom of this post if you want to host your own fun Lion King night!):
Invitation Time
I designed an invitation inviting the kids to our Countdown to Disney World night and kept it on-theme with Lion King. It reads “Oh I just Can’t Wait to be at Disney. Take a walk on the wild side and join us at the pride lands.” I thought it was cute and our little safari guide loved it too. <3
Decorations
I re-used the Snow White Mine brown paper from last month’s Disney theme night and the girls and I made jungle vines that we hung up around the house. You just roll & twist the crinkled up brown paper into large vine sections and then we stapled/taped on green leaves that we cut out of green crepe streamers we had on-hand. James works for a college University and inherited an antelope head from another teacher (?) that we snagged from his office and hung up on the wall for decor, and on the table we used mask and animal figurines that James has snagged from his travels to Africa and Brazil. It wasn’t 100% accurate (you won’t see pirañas in Africa) but it still made the theme fun and the kids loved it. I used a brown table runner that I covered with dark jungle palm leaves that I had snagged from Hobby Lobby half-off last year, and we also used candles to make it fun. I also found some fun animal print paper plates from Hobby Lobby that we used for dinner and dessert that kind of tied everything in together. In the living room we wrapped the vines around the TV and twisted green crepe streamers and masks to make it feel like a jungle.
Dinner & Dessert
This was probably my FAVORITE themed meal we’ve done so far. We had: Circle of Life (Little Caesars) Pizza, Simba Salad, and Jungle Juice (green kool-aid). And then for dessert we made yummy “Timon & Pumbaa Grub Cake” (also known as dirt cake).
Timon & Pumbaa Grub Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Box Family Size Brownies (we like Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge. If you can’t find the bigger family size, we’ve had success just mixing 2 boxes of brownies) + necessary ingredients listed on box
1 package of Oreos
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1 bag of candy gummy worms
Bake 1 batch of Duncan Hines Family Size Brownies (Chewy fudge is our favorite) in a 9 x 13 inch pan (If you can’t find the bigger size, we’ve had success doing 2 boxes of brownie mix)
While that cools, crush oreos from package
Mix crushed oreos with softened cream cheese to create a yummy truffle like mixture. Spread mixture on top of cooled brownies.
Dip candy gummy worms in mixture so it looks like it is coming out of the cake. Place in refrigerator until ready to eat and store leftovers in refrigerator.
Safari Animal Face Painting
Our kids LOVE LOVE LOVED this. They each chose their safari animal (we looked up quick ideas on Pinterest for reference since James and I haven’t really face painted before), and we used face paint to paint their faces. Annie was a cheetah, Max a Giraffe, Elena a tiger & Jack an antelope.
Budget
Oversized Animal Print Plates – $4 (We had a HARD time finding safari theme anything, so I’m sure we could have found some that were much less expensive)
Face Paint – $4 (Picked up a pack of Horizon Group face paint from walmart)
Green crepe streamers – $0 (Already owned – but you can get a 3-pack from dollar store for a dollar)
Supplies for Vines – $ 0 (Already had – reused brown paper from Snow White party)
*Our food was taken out of our grocery/eating-out budget so that’s not factored into this & printing invitation/itinerary was factored in with Christmas
Total = $8
Not too shabby
You can find our free Itinerary Printable HERE!
Having a fun theme night leading up to our Disney World trip has been a lot of fun for the family. I love that we can make it themed towards our goal (hello Disney World vacation) and doubles as a fun way to still add fun into our budget without spending a lot of money.
For other fun Disney themed ideas check out:
Visit Magic Kingdom With a Snow White Theme Night
