Parties are cool.

What's the obvious thing to do during the holidays?

Hold a party!

Of course! And what's the obvious kind of party to hold during the holidays?

A SAFARI Party!

:) Yes, we had a Safari party last night in honor of Rudyard Kipling, whose birthday is apparently December 30. It was much cooler than the regular Christmas/New Year's/etc. parties going on this time of year, and we got to toast Mr. Jungle Book again and again. Who could ask for anything better?

The day started with uber cleaning and decorating (thanks, Mom and Dad, for bringing tons of cool stuff!), and soon the apartment was a perfect safari wonderland.


We had a safari door,

a safari TV,

and a safari bar!

Then guests arrived. There were only 6 of us total, which is very nice when sharing alcohol. ;)

We played the soundtrack to Disney's The Jungle Book and had a great time playing games and generally being silly.

Our first game involved taping print-outs of cartoon jungle animals on everyone's back.

The rules for this game were pretty simple: you could ask questions about your animal, and everyone would tell the truth, but no one could tell you what your animal was. When you felt ready to guess, you announced your animal to the party. If you were wrong, you had to drink. If you were right, you had to make someone else drink. :)




Brent was a lion.

Necole was a hippo.

I was a monkey (not to be confused with the name Mokey), and Mike was a rhino.

Rob was a zebra.





And Adam (not in his own picture due to tardiness and camera-shy...ness) was a tiger.

We also played another game, where we sat in a circle wearing name tags and had to solve a problem as a team. We were allowed to look at each other's name tags, but not our own. Our problem was that we needed to cross a stream, but a tiger was in the way.

Brent's tag said, "Hello, I am THE LEADER."
Adam's tag said, "Hello, I am YOUR SPIRITUAL ADVISOR."
Mike's tag said, "Hello, I am OVERTLY SEXUAL."
Necole's tag said, "Hello, I am SPEAKING IN A LANGUAGE YOU DON'T KNOW."
My tag said, "Hello, I am A TOTAL MORON."
And Rob's tag said, "Hello, I am ALWAYS TALKING DOWN TO EVERYONE."

Once we solved our problem, we each guessed what our tags said based on how we were treated. Everyone guessed correctly! :)

Incidentally, our solution was to feed the total moron to the tiger so it would be distracted. Hrm.

Other than drinking and eating everything in sight, we also opened our safari socks (stockings) and sang karaoke.
Tons of cool presents were in our safari socks! Tiki faces, jungle animal beenies, those fun balloon twisty things that clowns use, candy, snake toys, etc!

Brighthouse rocked my world last night for offering Oxygen on-Demand with its Air Karaoke. Mike brought his amp and mic up to the living room, and we each took turns irritating the neighbors with our... er... vocal talents. :)

All in all, it was a pretty fun night! :) Thanks to everyone who came and made it so super cool. (thanks again to Mom and Dad for providing lots of decorations and munchies)!


I'm posting a little poll here to vote for our next party. All options are Saturdays! Please vote for your favorite! Hehe, go ahead and vote even if you aren't coming -- it'll be fun to see who has the coolest birthday.

By the way, Anderson Cooper's birthday is in June on a Sunday this year. We can definitely celebrate that.

*note: There should also be a little something on the 21st(ish) for Rob, who will get older on that day. :)

More pictures below!










Brent and Mokey stalking a tiger

Mike spying while Necole takes aim

Mike drunken shooting

Brent shooting sparks from his sparkle gun

The Beatles enjoying karaoke