Cash’s 6th Birthday Party for his Party Animals was a huge success. Part of that was thanks to the super fun Trading Post Station that kept the kids busy for most of the party. Shout out to my neighbor boys who are a few years older than all the party guests and helped out tremendously! There are many ways to run a Trading Post Station, but here are the logistics of ours…
Safari Trading Post Ideas
The premise of this Trading Post was built around it being the “Take Home” for the kids. In all honesty, I have accumulated a TON of little toy type things from 5 years of previous birthday parties, so this was the perfect way to purge all that stuff.
Not to mention, some amazing sponsors pitched in thanks to seeing previous parties and events on Instagram. THANK YOU!
– The A Cotton Kandi Life Kids
The idea was that the kids had to explore the Safari wilderness, collect treasure and then exchange it inside the Trading Post. Those two older boys I mentioned earlier helped count and process transactions. As you’ll notice throughout the Trading Post certain items cost certain treasures. For example, Whatcha-Ma-Call-Its cost 5 Bead Strands + 6 Precious Jewels.
I put an Exchange Bucket in the middle for the kids to *pay* and then we just kept dumping it back into the Sloth Sanctuary as it filled up. I’ll get to that in a minute. So, the kids could just keep collecting and exchanging until all of the items were gone.
Sloth Sanctuary
Okay, let’s go back to that Sloth Sanctuary I mentioned and set the scene for this whole Trading Post Station. This entire interactive party game begins at the Base Camp, which you’ll see in another post. At Base Camp, the kids went over the Safety Rules for treasure hunting in the Sloth Sanctuary. The primary rules being to move slowly and stay quiet, just like a sloth. At Base Camp, they also picked up a Trading Post tin pail for collecting their treasures and a Ruck Sack {drawstring bag} that they got to keep and store their Trading Post exchanges in. So that started the whole Trading Post *event* we’ll call it.
I should also note that the boys typically get *The Party* that we throw them as their gift from us. Billy and I don’t buy them gifts for their birthdays. So long as they want to keep having these giant parties, that is what they’ll get from us. Now with that, I usually embellish their party with a specific prop or even costume that is basically a Character Gift to be used at the party. Or, I use it for the party and they can keep it after. The big things for this party were the actual Sloths and Explorer Kits for each of them. Cash got to open these the day before his party so that I could use them and they could wear them the next day.
Structure
Now that we had our Sloths we were set to build the Sloth Sanctuary, which is where the kids would go to collect their Trading Post Treasures. Fortunately for us, we have this area of bamboo right by our patio. That made things a lot easier. In the open area right where the Trading Post opened up, we poured literal buckets of bead necklaces, plastic jewels, and pirate gold coins. The treasures were slightly buried by leaves but super easy to find. Our age group was vast so that made it more fun to have a high success rate.
The kids tip-toed quietly through the bamboo putting treasures into their tin pails, brought it to the Trading Post Exchange Bucket where my two neighbor kids helped them trade-in and pick prizes. The kids put their precious earnings into their Ruck Sacks, we tossed the full exchange bucket back into the bamboo when it filled and everyone just kept going on like that while the parents ate way too much Gorilla Poop… which I’ll tell you all about in another post.
How to Build a Trading Post
I know not everyone has access to their own rental inventory as I do from Green-Eyed Girl Productions. But, if you see yourself planning big parties for several kids in your future you may consider investing in a few key pieces. If you’ve been a Party Animal with me before you’re seeing the same setup pieces used over and over, mainly these white crates. I have used these babies for YEARS. They’re the main wall setup for The Mommy Made Boutique and make an appearance at every party we host. Throughout the year they’re all around my house and we just pull them when it is party time. I originally bought them at JOANN FABRICS, online, and they shipped them all right to me. They’ve more than paid for themselves after 5 years of use!
The other big items you see throughout the party including the tables, ladders, lifts, and baskets are all from my Event Planning business, Green-Eyed Girl Productions. It is fun to head into my storage unit and pull for parties. I have put myself into this 5-year Maternity Leave from Wedding Planning {that’s almost over!} and traded in all my Wedding Design skills for the cutest little monkeys ever. #noregrets
You will see a TON of greenery and ferns. A lot of that is from my Wedding Planning days, but I also bought a lot of new for this party. We spent a lot of time, coincidentally, on our landscaping this year, so I bought plants around the time of our party and planted them the week after. If you can time it right, Fred Meyer had the best plant sale in July. Then, a lot of the greenery & ferns you see are from Dollar Tree! Even the vines that I used in the Balloon Garland DIY Tutorial Post were bought from there. Order in bulk online and go through Ebates to get your cashback. Same with Joann’s crates above!
The Trading Post Banner and Printed Safari Themed Signs are all from my Etsy Shop, The Vintage Event. You can order a Banner or buy the Digital Download for the signs.
Trading Post Prizes
I had some amazing sponsors help out with this party. Through my Instagram, I am able to build some incredible partnerships with brands. Often times, brands will send me products to use in posts or even at events. These Mini Crayola Dough Packets were gifted to me by Play Visions, whom you can follow on Instagram. You can find all of my resources for this party in my Safari Party Supplies Blog Post:
Until next time Party Animals…
-Kandice
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