Anya's Animal Themed Birthday Party - Return Gifts

That eternal question.....to give or not to give return gifts? If yes, what to gift?

I battled the first question and reached the conclusion that till the time I don't say 'No' to accepting gifts, I can't say 'No' to return gifts either. So the only question was what to give. I had decided last year that gifts had to be meaningful and environment friendly. Since this was a jungle-animal theme, a plant would have fitted the bill perfectly. But it was red flagged by hubby and my sis-in-law. They felt that such young kids wouldn't be thrilled with a plant. So I went ahead with my next idea: books on animal themes.

As for return gift bags, I couldn't find any paper bags which were economical. Last year, hubby dear had done an excellent job of making paper bags. I wanted him to put to use his knowledge again. He tried his best to wriggle out but as the D-day neared, he resigned to his fate and armed with a pile of newspapers, gluestick and a pair of scissors, he made these 18 return gift bags. Attaboy!

Then he took animal face print-outs which Anya helped him color.

There was no need to put handles as the bags didn't need to hold anything heavy.