Zach's 3rd Birthday at the Alley Pond Environmental Center

Ah, it’s birthday party planning time again.  We just booked Zach’s 4^th “movie” birthday party which will not only be fun for the birthday boy, but be a real crowd pleaser.  We loved Zach’s 3^rd birthday party at the Alley Pond Environmental Center. 

Alley Pond is an environmental conservation center in Queens, NY, and is a huge nature preserve in the middle of the city.  I loved this place!  The kids enter through a long hallway on the way to the back party room.  There are terrariums built into the walls filled with fish, turtles, and other animals all at 3-year old eye-level.  The back party room has a sitting area and tables set up for the art project (the birthday boy had a choice of 3-4 activities).  Before the party starts, the kids can look at the adjoining animal room filled with turtles, birds, lizards, rabbits, snakes, and other animals in low pens and tanks.  Zach got to choose 3 animals to be presented at his party.  The party leader – a nature and animal expert – did a great, brief lesson about each animal and showed the kids the right way to pet the animals so as not to scare them.   

Zach chose a bearded dragon lizard, bunny, and snake – and the naturalist walked each animal around to the circle of kids so they could pet and discover the interesting features of each.  The “lesson” was geared to 3-year-olds.  For example, our hostess explained that the bearded dragon looks really scary so other animals won’t bother it.  But, that its spiky beard is really not so scary, and soft to the touch.  She likened the spikes to a Halloween costume to scare off animals who might bother the lizard.

We did a fish art project that the kids were able to take home with their goody bags (which were filled with animal themed loot ordered from Oriental Trading).

We needed to bring our own party supplies, which was a little tough, as we needed to remember every last detail from a cake knife, to plates, table cloths, napkins, forks, cups, etc.  But, we had a definitive start and end time, and were able to leave the party behind us once we were done.   

I really liked that the kids got to do something off the beaten track and learned something.  I learned something!  I recommend looking to educational nature centers or museums for your kids parties for a wholly enriching experience.