Jungle Party

"One, two, three... ROARRRR!"

Five-year-old little D loved animals, especially the lion. It was no surprise that for his birthday yesterday, he got his venue decorated in a safari manner, and even had animal costumes for his guests to dress-up for the photoshoot. With added props from MFB, it was indeed a jungle out there.

And what more apt than to bring across the message to the children that in their everyday lives, they ought to look before they leap, and to be careful where they were treading. Danger lurks in every corner, be it physically or spiritually, and they needed to learn to take care of themselves, especially if their caregivers were not by their side.

After the meaningful story, the 14 children were all eager to have a roaring good time out in the jungle. First up was the boys-versus-girls LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP competition. It was a gunny-sack race and the children had to leap to a checkpoint to pick up and thread in a part of the team's animal necklace. Who would have thought that the girls would out-leap the boys in this physically challenging game? They certainly leapt with amazing speed and the threading of the necklace proved to be an easy task for their nimble fingers - the girls won this challenge.

Next up was the animal blow-wind-blow game, where each child was masked up as an animal. All of them were very excited to run for a seat in the "jungle" when blown away from their own seat. And in the process, they learnt about animal facts like which animal could be kept as a pet, or lived in the wild in Africa and so on. Everyone had a great time in this non-competitive adventure.

Finally, as they children paused for a water break and collected their party craft items, all of them had a go at pinning the nose on the lion - the one on the poster, not the birthday boy. And the child that pinned it the most accurately walked away with a surprise.

Moral of the story - Look before your leap; Even when you are blindfolded and twirled around and overwhelmed in this world (by lots of homework and activities), pause and steady yourself before you move on.

Happy Birthday Little D!